Busan Office of Education and Busan City Jointly Address Low Birthrate and Educational Gaps ... Care and Education Connection Project

On the 18th at 10 a.m., the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education held a joint press conference with Busan City at the Busan City Hall briefing room to announce the ‘Care and Education Connection Project’ plan aimed at overcoming the dualization issue of care and education.

This project is a joint response by the Busan Office of Education and Busan City to establish a foundation for overcoming low birth rates and population issues and to prevent care and education gaps among children.

Since June 12, Busan Office of Education and Busan City have formed and operated a related task force (TF), discussing the project’s direction and detailed tasks to cooperate in realizing ‘responsible education and care’ and ‘borderless education and care’ that provide peace of mind to children and parents.

First, the City Office of Education and Busan City plan to jointly operate the Neulbom School TF from the second half of this year. In rural areas such as Garak, Daejeo, and Gijang, they will prepare plans to establish and operate the nation’s first ‘24-hour care centers.’

They will also jointly operate a TF for integrating childcare centers to eliminate disparities in meal and snack fees. They plan to cooperate in preparing detailed matters such as support age and financial sharing standards.

Hayunsoo, Superintendent of Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, is announcing the 'Care and Education Connection Project' at a press conference.

Additionally, as a joint project to build a safe commuting environment, they will promote the ‘Living Lab Utilization for Creating Safe School Routes’ project.

The project involves schools, parents, school learning space guardians, traffic guidance helpers, and specialized institutions working together to find solutions for school route safety. One elementary school per zone, totaling 4 to 5 schools, will be selected for pilot operation starting next year.

From March next year, they will jointly promote the ‘Busan Multi-Child Education Support Point Project,’ providing 300,000 KRW to families with two children and 500,000 KRW to families with three or more children. The target is families with children aged 6 to under 19, with funding shared at a ratio of 30% by the Office of Education and 70% by Busan City.

They also agreed to cooperate in the construction and operation of a children’s complex cultural facility. Utilizing idle spaces such as closed schools under the City Office of Education, they plan to jointly create multi-purpose children’s cultural facilities including children-only libraries, Deullaknallak, and care centers.

Furthermore, they will conduct joint research on ‘language development delays and lack of social skills among children and adolescents due to COVID-19’ and form a working-level consultative body to expand research areas.

Going forward, the Busan Office of Education and Busan City will continue to promote the ‘Care and Education Connection Project’ through the Education Administration Council and seek new projects and cooperative tasks.

Ha Yun-su, Superintendent of Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, said, “The future of our country lies with our children, and children must be at the center of education and care. Cooperation with Busan City will be an opportunity to remove the barriers between ‘education’ and ‘care’ and create a ‘Busan that is good for having and raising children.’”