Abstract
In many countries, public expenditure on childcare increased in recent decades as the childcare has become one of the key policy areas. Underlying beliefs of the increased public spending on childcare is that investment in childcare is the investment for future that can help to raise the birth rate and contribute to increase female labor market participation by reducing the burden of child-rearing for parents (Kalwij in Demography, 47(2), 503–519, 2010; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Doing better for families. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2011). In Korea childcare was proposed as a key solution to the complex problem caused by aging society and extremely low fertility rate. This chapter critically reviews childcare policy in Korea , outlining the main features of current early childhood education and care in Korea and discussing how the childcare policy has changed the lives of children and their families and as well as the landscape of childcare provision. Issues and challenges for Korean society posed by these policies are also discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Belsky, J. (2001). Developmental risks (still) associated with early child care. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 845–859.
Cunha, F., Heckman, J., Lochner, L., & Masterov, D. (2006). Interpreting the evidence on life cycle skill formation. In E. A. Hanushek & F. Welch (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of education (pp. 697–812). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Heckman, J., Stixrud, J., & Urzua, S. (2006). The effects of cognitive and noncognitive abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior. Journal of Labor Economics, 24(3), 411–482.
Kalwij, A. (2010). The impact of family policy expenditure on fertility in Western Europe. Demography, 47(2), 503–519.
Kim, E., Chang, H., & Cho, H. (2013). An analysis on welfare of teachers for early childhood education and care and subsequent suggestions. Seoul: Korea Institutes of Child Care and Education.
Kim, E., Lee, J., Kim, H., & Bae, J. (2014). A survey research on the current status of early childhood education and care in kindergartens and childcare facilities. Seoul: Korea Institute of Childcare and Education.
Kim, S. (2015). The trilemma of child care service: Korean strategy and its consequences. Economy and Society, Spring, 64–93.
Korea Childcare Promotion Institute. (2015). Childcare statistics. Retrieved from https://www.kcpi.or.kr/.
Ministry of Education and Korean Education Development Institute (2013). 2013 Educational statistics. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://kess.kedi.re.kr/index.
Ministry of Health and Welfare (2013). Statistics of child care. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.mohw.go.kr/front_new/jb/sjb030301vw.jsp.
Ministry of Health and Welfare (2014). Infant Act, Article 21. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from http://www.law.go.kr/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=154048&efYd=20150101#AJAX.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2010). Benefits and wages: Statistics. Paris: OECD.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011). Doing better for families. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/9789264098732-en.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2014). OECD Family database. Paris: OECD. Retrieved from www.oecd.org/social/family/database.htm.
Office of Statistics (2013). Population statistics. Daejeon, Korea. Retrieved from http://kosis.kr/statisticsList/statisticsList_01List.jsp?vwcd=MT_ZTITLE&parentId=A.
Office of Statistics (2014). Population statistics. Daejeon, Korea. Retrieved from http://kosis.kr/statisticsList/statisticsList_01List.jsp?vwcd=MT_ZTITLE&parentId=A.
Office of Statistics (2015). Population statistics. Daejeon, Korea. Retrieved from http://kosis.kr/statisticsList/statisticsList_01List.jsp?vwcd=MT_ZTITLE&parentId=A.
Park, E., & Park, S. (2015). Issues and tasks for early childhood education and care workforce in Korea. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 9(2), 23–50. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17206/apjrece.2015.9.2.23.
Park, W., An, R., & Ha, Y. (1998). Children’s stress behavior patterns in full-day and half-day kindergarten programs. Korean Journal of Early Childhood Education, 18(2), 135–155.
Suh, M., & Lee, H. (2014). The increase in the budget of and its effect to early childhood education and care: 2004–2014. Seoul: Korea Institute of Child Care and Education.
Vandell, D. L., & Wolfe, B. (2000). Child care quality: Does it matter and does it need to be improved? (Special Report no. 78). Madison: University of Wisconsin. Institute for Research on Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/sr/pdfs/sr78.pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Park, E., Jun, HJ. (2017). Has the Universal Free Childcare Policy Been Successful? Issues and Challenges for Early Childhood Education and Care in Korea. In: Li, M., Fox, J., Grieshaber, S. (eds) Contemporary Issues and Challenge in Early Childhood Education in the Asia-Pacific Region. New Frontiers of Educational Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2207-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2207-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2205-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2207-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)