Gyeonggi Office of Education Suspends Operating Subsidies for Private Kindergartens Refusing Audit

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education announced that starting next month, it will no longer provide support for class operation expenses and basic teacher salaries paid to founders and managers who work as teachers at private kindergartens that refuse audits or fail to implement audit result measures.

This decision is a follow-up measure in accordance with the revised "Early Childhood Education Act" enacted in January this year. The revised law significantly strengthens the public nature and accountability of private kindergartens.

The Gyeonggi Office of Education currently supports private kindergartens in the province with 420,000 KRW per class per month for class operation expenses and 550,000 KRW per teacher per month as a basic teacher salary subsidy. Additionally, if a teacher is in charge of a class, an extra 130,000 KRW per person is provided.

However, if the founder or manager directly works as a teacher, the basic teacher salary subsidy and class teacher duty allowance are not provided.

Ryu Si-seok, head of the Early Childhood Education Division at the Gyeonggi Office of Education, stated, "Through this measure, we expect private kindergartens to sincerely undergo audits as educational institutions and responsibly implement the measures resulting from the audit."