안전한 영유아 보육·교육 환경 조성 방안(Ⅲ): 유치원과 어린이집의 건강·위생 관리 실태 분석

Abstract

Since the growth and development of young children have a lifetime impact, early childhood centers must provide a healthy environment that meets the developmental levels of the young children to promote physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of the children, and various activities to allow them to have desirable experience. Thus, this study was conducted as part of a 3-year research on the condition and management of both physical and human environment for the provision of safe childcare environment. In the third year, this study sought to find ways to support the healthy and balanced growth of young children through the analysis on the health and hygiene environment of kindergartens and child care centers. For the methods of the study, literature review, surveys, in-depth interviews, overseas case studies, expert consultation, policy research councils, and children's safety forum were conducted. As for the literature, major policies were reviewed by looking into preliminary research and legal system regarding the domestic and foreign health and hygiene, statistics related to children, and policy data(press releases, etc) of related government departments. Also, considering the types of kindergarten and child care centers establishment, a total of 11 in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers and parents from 4 kindergartens and 7 child care centers to understand the current status of health and hygiene management and difficulties. In addition, a survey regarding the current status of health and hygiene management as well as any difficulties and requirements was conducted to a total of 1,217 principals (409 kindergarten and 808 child care centers), and overseas cases of the countries considered to have system for health and hygiene management and related policies were analyzed (UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore, etc). Expert consultation conference was held to gather opinions on the research direction, review of contents and items of the survey and provision of safe childcare environment, and policy research councils was also conducted with relevant public official for gathering of information and research cooperation. Furthermore, children's safety forum was held to share the results of the research and create synergy effects of collaborative research. Based on the results of the study, policy suggestions were made related to three areas of the health and hygiene management of both kindergartens and child care centers: health management of children and staff, disease management and first aid, indoor environment hygiene and indoor air quality management. The details are as follows. First, in the area of health management of children and staff, items such as improvement of health checkups for young children, management and promotion of vaccination system, linking of health education programs between local governments and the Education Office, supplementing child care center doctor system, unification and improvement of the standards for staff health management were proposed. Second, in the area of disease management and first aid, items such as joint management plan regarding injection requests, the development and dissemination of manuals for children's special diseases, infectious disease management, support for emergency measure education and obligatory arrangement of qualified personnels were proposed. Finally, in the area of indoor environment hygiene and indoor air quality management, items such as manpower support for cleaning and cleaning standards for different spaces were proposed for the inddor environment hygiene. As for the indoor air quality management, the proposals included items such as air ventilation standards, development of self-check item for indoor air quality maintenance and management, and the improvement of the indoor air quality test.