摘要：This study investigated the performance of the child care policies implemented by the former government and analyzes some changes in child care policies by the new government in Korea. The criteria for evaluating child care policies of both governments were based on suggestions gleaned from OECD policy review papers on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEQ in 2004 and 2006. As suggested by the OECD,the inputof financial investment in public sectors,universal approaches to child care,measures of quality programs,efforts for improving the work environment of child care workers and selecting effective ways of providing financial support for child care were applied in order to evaluate the child care policies in Korea. A number of policy documents and literature published by both governments from 2003-2009 were reviewed in order to evaluate and compare the former child care policies with the more recent ones. The child care policies enacted by the former Korean government were characterized as the remarkable increases in financial investment to establish a child care infrastructure for quality programs and services,and efforts to enact universal approaches to child care,policy making based on scientific data on child care. These advances were tempered by the observation that despite all these improvements,both investment and expansion in the public child care sector were far below sufficient levels. In contrast,some changes in the child care policies by the new government were criticized in terms of weakening public child care,reinforcing private child care and it’s conservative financial support system.
关键词：Korean child care policy;financial support for child care;child care quality
