Gyeonggi Province will expand public daycare centers by 170 each year until 2026.
On the 24th, Gyeonggi Province announced plans to increase the number of public daycare centers by 170 annually through the construction of new public daycare centers and the conversion of existing private and home daycare centers in apartment complex management buildings to public ones.
According to Gyeonggi Province, out of 567 eup, myeon, and dong (townships and neighborhoods) in the province, 136 areas, accounting for 24%, have no public daycare centers. Among these, 68 areas have more than 300 young children. In contrast, Dasan 1-dong in Namyangju City and Dongtan 7-dong in Hwaseong City have 22 public daycare centers each, Godeok-dong in Pyeongtaek City has 21, and Gamil-dong in Hanam City has 17, showing severe regional imbalance.
Gyeonggi Province analyzes that the mandatory installation of public daycare centers in apartment complexes with more than 500 households, enforced since 2019 under the Infant Care Act, has caused this regional imbalance.
While public daycare centers face regional imbalance issues, the closure of daycare centers in the province is a serious problem.
From 2018 to 2022, a total of 4,098 daycare centers closed in Gyeonggi Province, averaging 820 closures per year. In 2022, 882 centers closed, and as of April this year, 421 centers have shut down.
The main cause is the low birthrate, with the number of young children in the province decreasing by about 20%, from 816,247 in 2018 to 654,856 in 2022.
Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province has set priority criteria for installing public daycare centers as follows: areas with a low installation rate of public daycare centers, cities and counties with low utilization rates of public daycare centers, and areas where the enrollment rate of public daycare centers exceeds 90%, indicating a significant shortage of supply compared to demand.
Gyeonggi Province will provide up to 300 million KRW in additional support for the construction of new public daycare centers.
Furthermore, if securing new sites is difficult, the province encourages expanding public daycare centers by purchasing or remodeling houses in old downtown areas. For priority support targets, such as installing daycare centers in shared facilities in declining areas and urban regeneration zones, an additional 10% of the 300 million KRW support amount will be provided.
Yoon Young-mi, Director of the Childcare Policy Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "The childcare blind spots are growing especially in old downtown general housing complexes and aged apartment complexes with low childcare demand. Gyeonggi Province will actively expand public daycare centers so that parents' childcare burdens are alleviated and residents can enjoy high-quality public childcare services without discrimination based on their living area."
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