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Gov`t pours budget only to create child-abusive daycare centers

Gov`t pours budget only to create child-abusive daycare centers

Posted January. 16, 2015 08:02,   

한국어

Yeonsoo District in Incheon City announced on Thursday that it would close a local daycare center where a nursing teacher was caught on CCTV camera hitting a four-year-old child with a "knock-down punch." Police have decided to launch a comprehensive investigation on child abuse targeting all daycare centers and nurseries across the nation in collaboration with local autonomous organizations. Ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung said, “(The incident was) the biggest shock since the deadly sunken ferry Sewol accident,” calling for a party and government meeting to discuss countermeasures. The Saenuri Party and President Park Geun-hye administration renewed their strong commitment to eradicate child abuse at the party-government meeting in May 2013, saying, “The nursing and education system for children under five, for which the government is fully responsible, is well being implemented well without any issue (said by then Health and Welfare Minister Jin Young).” It is doubtful whether only chanting "commitment" can dissipate anger and dread of concerned mothers.

Childcare subsidy, also known as free childcare, is a representative welfare policy of President Park’s administration. More than 1 billion won (approx. 9.28 million dollars) of tax had been spent for this purpose last year alone. It amounts to 70 percent of the government budget set aside for low-birth rate and aging society, but there are very few daycare facilities that parents can trust to put their children among 43,000 nursery facilities nationwide. Under the "evaluation and certification system" designed to screen high-quality childcare facilities, the Incheon daycare center in question obtained 95.96 points out of 100 last year. Welfare Minister Moon Hyeong-pyo must be held responsible for over-issuing invalid certificates.

Although the number of child abuse cases that occurred in daycare centers has increased from 100 in 2010 to 265 in 2014, punishment is too soft to deter such acts. License suspension was the only punishment for a nursing teacher in Gwangju, who locked up and physically abused a 23-month-old baby in a toilet in 2013, or a daycare center director and a teacher in Busan, who beat eight toddlers 216 times in the same year.

In 2014, the issues of violence in the conscripted Korean military made many parents, who have sons serving in the army, raise their voices to call for fundamental changes. Upon the opportunity, "military reform" has become an important topic in our society. The government should be blamed for a lack of supervision and oversight on the daycare centers, which are springing up like mushrooms seeking government subsidies. Make-shift childcare policy has accumulated for a long time and many issues are now coming to the surface. Taking this opportunity, the government must develop countermeasures including legislation for mandatory installation of CCTVs at daycare centers, system to prevent child abuse, improvement of nursing teachers’ qualification, and strengthened punishment against abusive teachers. It is necessary to re-examine the "free childcare system" fundamentally, which fails to improve quality of the childcare service. Under this irresponsible and incapable government, which cannot protect rights of children who must be protected at any condition, the birth rate would remain the same no matter how much budget the government spends.