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For the first time in the country, there is an elementary care center operated directly by the local government rather than the budget of the education office.
It was praised by parents and experts and was noted as an excellent case, but the parents are protesting because the local government said they would withdraw their hands from the management.
Reporter Jung Da-eun, what's going on.
<Reporter> This
is an elementary school care center in Jung-gu, Seoul.
It is open until 8 pm and lunch and snacks are free.
There are two caregivers in one classroom, and they are responsible for the children's dismissal from school.
[Baek Ji-yeon / Director of the care center at Namsan Elementary School in Jung-gu, Seoul: Since there are two teachers, when children leave school, safety is the top priority, and children are dismissed to the front of the school gate.
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While other local childcare classes are operated by each school with the budget of the Education Office, 16 care centers in Jung-gu have been directly managed by the Jung-gu Office since 2019.
As the satisfaction of parents exceeded 99%, it received the President's Award in the evaluation of excellent policies by local governments.
Recently, however, the Jung-gu Office is pursuing a plan to hand over the care classes to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education again.
[Mr. A/Parents in Jung-gu, Seoul: Because the quality is dictated by private companies, the state operated by the education office, and the things being operated in Jung-gu are different…
.
There is no roadmap drawn exactly (I'm nervous.)]
The problem was the budget.
The budget for the elementary school care project over the past four years was about 23.6 billion won.
Although the state and the city also receive it, the financial burden has increased as the Jung-gu office bears 77%.
[Kim Gil-seong / Mayor of Jung-gu, Seoul: All 50 local governments across the country came and benchmarked.
And I didn't even do one.
There is something wrong with that structure.
With this structure, local governments cannot (continue).] This is
a structure in which local governments that directly manage childcare classes for residents are again at a budget disadvantage.
There are also opinions that the central government should establish a large frame of care and play a coordinating role between the local government and the education office in order to utilize and expand the advantages of direct management of local governments.