Daycare Center Directors and Childcare Teachers Allowed to Discipline
Deliberation and Resolution of the Amendment to the 'Infant and Toddler Care Act Enforcement Decree'
The enforcement decree of the relevant law now explicitly states that daycare center directors or childcare teachers can discipline or reprimand infants and toddlers to guide their character, interpersonal relationships, health, and safety.
On the 30th, the Ministry of Education announced that the partial amendment to the 'Enforcement Decree of the Infant and Toddler Care Act' was reviewed and approved at the Cabinet meeting. This amendment is a follow-up measure to the Infant and Toddler Care Act revised last February to strengthen the protection of childcare staff's caregiving activities at daycare centers.
According to the amended enforcement decree, a new clause was added stating that daycare center directors or childcare teachers can guide infants and toddlers through advice, counseling, caution, discipline, or reprimand in areas such as academics, health and safety, and character and interpersonal relationships. However, in such cases, methods that cause physical pain to the child using tools or the body are prohibited, and this is also explicitly stated in the enforcement decree.
The specific scope and methods of guiding infants and toddlers will be determined and announced by the Minister of Education. Additionally, a basis has been established to formulate policies to protect the caregiving activities of childcare staff. The amended enforcement decree also stipulates that protection policies for caregiving activities must be established and implemented through deliberations by the Childcare Activity Protection Committee at the national level (every 5 years) and local governments (every year) including city and provincial committees.
Furthermore, the amendment includes provisions to increase compliance with the obligation to establish workplace daycare centers by more specifically disclosing the names of workplaces that have not fulfilled this obligation. This issue appears to have been a major focus of the amendment after it was revealed last year that fashion platform company A made remarks implying "there are few employees wishing to enroll" and "fines are cheaper than establishing a workplace daycare center."
Previously, only the names of workplaces that failed to establish workplace daycare centers, the number of regular employees, the number of female employees, the number of infants and toddlers eligible for care, reasons for non-compliance, and refusal to cooperate with surveys were disclosed. Going forward, the employer's name and the cumulative number of times the list has been published will be added.
Additionally, the amendment expands the scope of wage subsidies from 'childcare teachers' to 'childcare staff.' This provides a legal basis for the state or local governments to subsidize wages not only for childcare teachers but also for childcare staff. Employees responsible for managing and operating daycare centers, in addition to teachers, will also be included as wage subsidy recipients, which is expected to reduce wage blind spots.
Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, stated, "With this amendment, the protection of childcare staff's educational activities and sanctions against workplaces without workplace daycare centers will be strengthened, and we expect the education and childcare environment to improve significantly."
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