South Korea will begin offering free education and childcare to all five-year-olds by subsidising pre-school institutions from July, marking a significant step in the country’s plan to make pre-schoolers’ education universally accessible by 2027.
South Korea will begin offering free education and childcare to all five-year-olds by subsidising pre-school institutions from July, marking a significant step in the country’s plan to make pre-schoolers’ education universally accessible by 2027.
The Ministry of Education announced on July 29 that the Cabinet approved a 128.9 billion won (S$120 million) expenditure to cover the second half of the year. It aims to support approximately 278,000 children aged five who are enrolled in either kindergartens or daycare centres nationwide.
This funding is part of a broader push to gradually expand free education and care to children aged four in 2026 and to all kids aged between three and five by 2027, in line with President Lee Jae Myung’s campaign pledge to increase state responsibility for early childhood education.
Since 2013, South Korea has implemented a unified early childhood curriculum for children aged three to five and has offered partial financial support for tuition and care. However, parents have continued to shoulder out-of-pocket costs due to institutional disparities, particularly between public and private facilities.
The new plan aims to eliminate these gaps and significantly reduce the financial burden on families, the ministry said.
Under the revised policy, public kindergartens, which traditionally charge no tuition, will see their government subsidy for after-school programmes raised from 50,000 won to 70,000 won per child, aligning with private kindergarten subsidies.
Private kindergartens will receive an additional 110,000 won in subsidies per child to cover the gap between the standard early education cost, which is 557,000 won, and the average government and provincial education office subsidies of 448,000 won.
For daycare centres, the government will provide an additional 70,000 won to cover the average cost of supplementary expenses such as enrolment preparation, uniforms, extracurricular programmes, transportation, field trips and meals, which have until now been paid by parents.
Seoul emphasised that payments will be made directly to the institutions from July, ensuring that parents are exempt from paying those costs going forward. For parents who have already paid July fees, each institution is instructed to consult with parent councils to arrange refunds or carry the surplus forward.
“This policy represents a crucial step towards equal opportunity at the starting line of life,” said Mr Kang Min-kyu, director of the early childhood policy department at the Education Ministry.
“We will continue to expand government support so that every child, regardless of background or region, receives quality education and care.”
South Korea’s commitment to free education dates back to 1959, when tuition-free and compulsory elementary education was first introduced. Over the decades, the scope of free education has expanded.
In 1985, free middle school education was launched in remote areas and later nationwide by 2005. The government began phasing in free high school education in 2019, which was completed in 2021.
Despite these achievements, early childhood education, particularly for ages three to five, remained partially subsidised until now.
Infants aged zero to two are already eligible for full childcare subsidies, though this is categorised under welfare rather than formal education.
In a separate but complementary move, the government also announced increased financial support for infants aged zero to two and children with disabilities, starting in July.
Also beginning in July, monthly childcare subsidies for children enrolled in daycare centres were raised by approximately 5 per cent, following the National Assembly’s approval of a supplementary budget aimed at boosting domestic consumption and easing economic burdens on households.