Board of Audit and Inspection Points Out Reliability Issues in Childcare Center Satisfaction Survey... One Observation During Working Hours After Prior Notice of Visit Date
[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] The Board of Audit and Inspection has raised doubts about the reliability of the Korea Childcare Promotion Institute's survey, noting that even daycare centers involved in child abuse cases received positive evaluations in the 'Respect for Infants and Toddlers' category.
On the 20th, the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an audit covering major projects, budgets, and personnel of the Korea Childcare Promotion Institute and the Korea Social Security Information Service, and announced the results.
According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Korea Childcare Promotion Institute is entrusted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to conduct daycare center evaluations aimed at improving infant and toddler safety and the quality of childcare services, pursuant to Article 51-2 of the Infant and Toddler Care Act and related regulations.
With the amendment of the Infant and Toddler Care Act, a ‘User Satisfaction’ category was added to the existing evaluation items to more accurately assess the quality of daycare services. The Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out, "Not including satisfaction with daycare center use as a mandatory evaluation item and failing to develop evaluation scales for measuring satisfaction have resulted in insufficient achievement of the evaluation's purpose to improve infant and toddler safety and the quality of childcare services."
The Board criticized, "Some daycare centers conduct parent satisfaction surveys selectively, but these are not standardized, making it difficult to ensure objectivity and fairness. Moreover, honest responses are hard to obtain due to concerns about disadvantages, casting doubt on the reliability."
For example, a daycare center in Daejeon that received a positive evaluation in the ‘Respect for Infants and Toddlers’ category during the December 2019 evaluation was administratively sanctioned (qualification suspension) for child abuse in May 2019 and March 2020, before and after the evaluation, respectively.
The Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out, "The Childcare Promotion Institute measures by notifying the visit date in advance and observing the daycare center once during working hours on the evaluation day," adding, "The criteria for negative evaluation list acts such as verbal abuse and corporal punishment toward infants and toddlers, which are practically unlikely to occur in front of the evaluator."
The Board criticized, "The reliability of the evaluation has deteriorated as daycare centers where child abuse or discriminatory treatment of childcare teachers occurred received positive evaluations in the ‘Respect for Infants, Toddlers, and Childcare Staff’ indicators."
The Board notified the head of the Childcare Promotion Institute to include the legally mandated indicator ‘User Satisfaction’ as a mandatory evaluation item during daycare center evaluations, and to develop evaluation scales for ‘User Satisfaction’ by incorporating standardized survey results from parents and other guardians.
Furthermore, the Board instructed to prepare measures to improve evaluation methods by supplementing items that are difficult to judge based on a single observation on the evaluation day with survey results from users such as guardians and childcare staff.
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