[서울 = 뉴스핌] Reporter Kim Beom-ju = Resistance from kindergarten teachers against the ‘unification of kindergartens’, which merges the management systems of daycare centers and kindergartens, is growing. Issues such as ‘teacher qualifications‘ and ‘budget security‘, which were expected to be controversial from the beginning of the unification of kindergartens, appear to be surfacing.
In particular, considering that most of Korea’s infant care and education facilities are operated as private facilities, there is opposition that the government’s current plan to integrate kindergartens is in fact ‘privatization.’
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union held a rally near the Seoul Government Complex on the 26th and argued, “The plan to integrate kindergartens that ignores field teachers must be completely withdrawn.”
The current government is pursuing the so-called kindergarten integration, which unifies the management system of daycare centers and kindergartens. It also contains the purpose of responding to the decline in the school-age population in an era of low birth rates.
With the passage of the amendment to the Government Organization Act at the end of last year, a foundation was laid for the integration of the government. However, there is still room for revision of the law to transfer the tasks, budget, and human resources that have been handled by local governments to the Office of Education.
However, teachers in the field are claiming that the first step toward unifying kindergartens was done incorrectly. Their argument is that the expertise of kindergarten and childcare teachers should be guaranteed and training should be conducted separately through a separate qualification system.
Looking at the status of departments issuing childcare teacher certificates from the Childcare Policy Research Institute published in 2022, 28% are early childhood education, 14.7% are children’s studies, and 9.3% are childcare departments, 33.7% are welfare-related departments, and 14.3% are other departments.
It is pointed out that it is not fair to apply a special training system to those in welfare-related departments such as home economics, nursing, food, and social welfare and other childcare teacher certification holders to qualify as integrated teachers for 0-5 year olds.
The heads of local governments are also opposed to the plan for consolidating kindergartens proposed by the Ministry of Education. It is argued that there is no suitable plan to transfer the 1,600 local government childcare workers currently in operation to the Office of Education.
There was also continued criticism of the Ministry of Education’s attitude of only insisting on unifying kindergartens without investing basic budget for improving kindergarten facilities. It is claimed that this is an attempt to ‘fool the eye’ into thinking that conditions for early childhood education will improve by merging departments without additional government support.
Kindergarten teachers were also concerned about the downward standardization of early childhood education. The ‘Infant and Toddler School Pilot Project’ shook the nature of kindergartens, and the ‘Special Training System’ relaxed the requirements for acquiring teacher qualifications, resulting in a decline in the quality of early childhood education.
Jeon Hee-young, president of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, said, “All pilot projects without even a specific integrated model were a wartime administration and a waste of public money,” adding, “The Ministry of Education postponed indefinitely the announcement of the kindergarten integration model plan that was scheduled to be announced at the end of last year, and has not yet announced a detailed plan even after half a year. “They are not doing it,” he criticized.
Jin Myeong-seon, chairman of the Early Childhood Education Committee of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, said, “The Ministry of Education has no budget or manpower, but it is pushing ahead with the unification of kindergartens, telling education offices and kindergartens to handle it on their own.” He added, “I have never called for a hasty unification of kindergartens, which lacks the budget, manpower, and social consensus.” pointed out.
Kim Eun-mi, a 14-year public kindergarten teacher and chair of the Early Childhood Education Committee of the Ulsan branch of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, said, “The Ulsan Office of Education recently requested Danseol Kindergarten to hire care instructors to operate 12-hour care from morning to evening.” “The solution when you lose is to bring in teachers,” he criticized.
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