Gyeonggi Province will lessen the difficulties that daycare centers in the rural areas of northern Gyeonggi Province have experienced with securing nursing teachers.

The province announced on March 1 that it had granted a special exemption to relax the criteria for nursing teacher-to-child ratios in 885 daycare centers in these areas.

In accordance with the conventional ratios, at least one nursing teacher should be assigned to every 3 children under the age of 1, 5 children aged 1, 7 children aged 2, 15 children aged 3, and 20 children aged 4 and up, respectively. However, in rural areas where the special exemption applies, daycare centers can operate with the ratios of one teacher to 4 children under the age of 1, 7 children aged 1, 9 children aged 2, 19 children aged 3, and 24 children aged 4 and up, at a maximum, respectively.

Also, in daycare centers in the special exemption areas that care for between 21 and 39 children, center directors can hold the additional post of nursing teacher, just as in centers with 21 or fewer children.

The special exemption will be applied to a total of 885 daycare centers located in 75 localities in 7 northern Gyeonggi cities and counties — 41 centers in Goyang, 408 in Namyangju, 182 in Paju, 81 in Yangju, 101 in Pocheon, 37 in Gapyeong, and 35 in Yeoncheon. Lowering the ratio standards for nursing teachers to children in these centers will mitigate the burden of having to secure so many teachers.

However, the daycare centers subject to the special exemption will be required to use the revenue generated from the increased number of children per teacher to improve the treatment of teachers, including raising their salaries.

The director of a daycare center in Gapyeong that benefited from the special exemption last year said, “Gapyeong is inhabited by many multicultural families that have, in many cases, more than two children being taken care of by the same daycare center. However, as nursing teachers do not prefer rural areas, daycare centers in the region have had difficulties with securing teachers as needed. The special exemption has eased this difficulty and helped us increase our operational efficiency.”

The special exemption is effective from March 2018, when the new semester begins, to February 2019, and the scope and areas subject to the exemption will be announced via the website of each city and county.

A Gyeonggi Province official stated, “The special exemption is intended to help daycare centers in rural areas that have made complaints about the many difficulties with securing nursing teachers and workers due to the remoteness causing commuting problems, unlike daycare centers in urban areas. The province will continue to enhance the treatment of workers in rural daycare centers and provide them with institutional support.”