Yejeongcheo "Yubotonghap Not Included in Next Year's Budget Proposal"... Concerns Over Financial Shortfall

Increase in Early Childhood Teachers Leads to 1.5 Trillion KRW Annual Budget Rise
"Ministry of Education Plans to Cover with Grants"
Emphasis on Need for Detailed Budget Estimates by Task

There has been criticism that the budget plan for promoting the integration of early childhood education and care, known as ‘Yubotonghap,’ was not included in next year’s budget proposal.

According to the National Assembly Budget Office on the 31st of last month, the recently released “2025 Budget Proposal Committee Analysis” report stated that “the Ministry of Education’s Yubotonghap implementation plan (draft) announced in June 2024 includes tasks that require substantial budgets, such as expanding usage hours and days, improving teacher-to-infant ratios, and realizing phased free education and care.”

In next year’s budget proposal, the budget for ‘early childhood education and care fee support’ was set at approximately KRW 3.102 trillion, a 3.4% (KRW 108.618 billion) reduction compared to this year. However, the Budget Office pointed out that the government did not allocate the budget required for Yubotonghap in the 2025 budget proposal. The Ministry of Education stated that the budget needed for Yubotonghap would be covered by local education finance grants, which are part of the budgets of metropolitan and provincial offices of education.

Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, is announcing measures to normalize medical school education on the 14th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

[Source: Ministry of Education]

In particular, according to the Ministry of Education’s plan, approximately 58,000 additional teachers would be needed based on the number of enrolled infants and toddlers in 2023, and it was estimated that this would require at least KRW 1.5 trillion annually. Accordingly, it is expected that additional budget needs of a smaller scale than this will arise next year. The Ministry of Education has announced through the Yubotonghap implementation plan that it will improve the teacher-to-infant ratio standards from 1:24?28 for kindergartens, 1:3 (age 0), 1:5?7 (ages 1?2), and 1:15?20 (ages 3?5) for daycare centers to 1:2 (age 0) and 1:8 (average for ages 3?5) in the future.

The Budget Office stated, “For the successful implementation of Yubotonghap, it is necessary to estimate the required budget for each detailed task and to derive feasible funding plans through consultations between the government and education offices.” It added, “The government needs to carefully prepare and review mandatory expenditures and appropriately reflect them in the budget proposal and the national fiscal management plan to ensure that fiscal balance management is not disrupted.”

The Budget Office also expressed the opinion that the budget for infant and toddler care fee support itself was under-allocated in next year’s budget proposal. The budget for infant and toddler care fee support in next year’s proposal was allocated at approximately KRW 3.24 trillion, an increase of 0.2% (KRW 6.152 billion) compared to this year. The Budget Office expressed concern that although the government’s budget proposal has reflected annual increases in care fees to account for minimum wage and inflation, the 2025 budget proposal did not reflect an increase in care fee unit prices, considering that care fees include labor costs and meal expenses for private and home daycare centers.

[Source: Ministry of Education]

Furthermore, it was pointed out that the increasing trend in daycare center usage rates was not reflected in the budget scale. It was found that recently the actual usage rate of daycare centers is higher than the usage rate assumed during budget formulation, resulting in unpaid amounts. The Budget Office emphasized, “To eliminate the gap between kindergartens and daycare centers and to establish the foundation for Yubotonghap, it is necessary to raise the unit price based on the ‘standard childcare cost,’ which represents a reasonable free childcare cost, in order to improve childcare conditions and realize support.”