Governmental Support for Kindergarten Costs

For households with more than two kids attending kindergarten or nursery schools at the same time, the government has a plan to support monthly 30,000~60,000 won of educational aid per child from the second child this year.

In addition, the target of free education or nurturing for five-year-old children will increase by 134,000 children, which is 30 percent of the total target.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and the Ministry of Gender Equality said on February 6 that they appropriated 167.2 billion won in budget money for children’s educational fees and 267.1 billion won for infant nursery fees in order to relieve the burdens of low-income groups.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and the Ministry of Gender Equality will support 30,000 to 60,000 won of monthly educational or nursery fees for children whose families have less than 3,400,000 won of income, which is the acknowledged amount of monthly income a four-member family needs if more than two children in the family are going to kindergarten or nursery school simultaneously.

The acknowledged amount of monthly income is calculated as the amount of conversion of property plus monthly earned income. The amount of conversion of property will be divided into normal property, financial assets, and cars, and will have the conversion rate of income applied to it.

The target of free education for full five-year-old children is children of legal low-income housing groups and low-income families whose incomes are less than 2.7 million won, which is the acknowledged average monthly income of a four-member family.

A total of 38.5 percent of 1.4 million children in kindergarten and nursery schools will receive support for kindergarten and nursery fees starting in March.

An official of the Ministry of Gender Equality said that “it is necessary to verify whether or not they are the appropriate families at their domicile Dong offices or town offices since there are many households, which are included in the new provisions starting from this year in accordance with the expansion of government support.”

Educational and nursery fees will be reduced if they get a certificate of acknowledgement for their amount of income issued from their domicile Dong offices or town offices, and submit it to their kindergarten or nursery schools.

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com