Opening Ceremony of the National Assembly’s second kindergarten
in 2010 (Picture: NEWSIS)
The National Assembly has set budget for the construction of its
third kindergarten three years after its second kindergarten was constructed. The
plan is to build the third kindergarten by May 2014 with a total budget of 2.563
billion won. The reason behind is that the full capacity of its first and
second kindergarten is 290 while there are 260 on the waiting list.
The new project of constructing a new National Assembly’s
Kindergarten sounds reasonable considering the 260 people who are on the list.
However, this only makes sense when the demand of national and public
kindergartens is not known.
According to the data “Waiting list of National and Public
Kindergartens” which Nam Yoon In Soon, a member of Democratic United Party and
Health and Welfare Committee at the National Assembly, gained from the Ministry
of Health and welfare, it is possible to see the short supply of national and
public kindergartens.
The regions ranked on the top 10 concerning its long waiting
list have a capacity of 2500 kids while there are 7200 on the lists. Although
it differs a lot among cities, this means that the number of children on the
list is nearly 3 fold the quota. In comparison, the budget for constructing new
national and public kindergartens remained at 1.982 billion for the past 4
years. 2.6 billion won has been set for the National Assembly’s kindergarten
while the budget for national and public kindergartens of the Ministry of
Welfare and Health is less than 2 billion a year.
Of course, the National Assembly’s idea of building an extra
kindergarten may be a good idea if it is necessary. However, in the current
condition where a country-wide short supply of national and public
kindergartens and the lack of budget are present, the third kindergarten of the
National Assembly which cost 2.6 billion won only seems to be a privilege for
parliamentary officials and aides from the perspective of citizens.
국회제3어린이집예산(국회운영위원회예비심사보고서).pdf