Problems and improvement plans related to the protection of rights and interests of childcare staff(childcare teachers) - Focusing on the analysis of related laws and ordinances of local governments -
Authors:   Academy of Social Welfare and Law, Lee Seo-Yeong 
Published: April 2024

This study aimed at 27 local governments that have relevant laws(Infant Child Care Act, Early Childhood Education Act, Educational Public Officials Act, Special Act on the Promotion of Teachers' Status and Protection of Educational Activities) and related ordinances to date, 'protection and promotion of rights and interests of childcare teachers'. By analyzing the Ordinance for (Support)', the legal status of childcare staff (childcare teachers) and the problems of the regulations related to the protection of rights and interests will be examined, and based on this, improvement plans will be suggested. Based on this, the main purpose of the study is to provide basic data for future related laws(Infant Care Act) and local government ordinance enactment/revision and retention integration law(tentative name, Infant Education and Child Care Act).
Based on the problems found in the research results, we would like to suggest improvements as follows.
First, the main problems and improvement measures related to the Infant Care Act are: 1) the legal status of childcare teachers; It should be improved so that the status of teachers under the Education Act is secured on an equal basis with kindergarten teachers, and the protection of teaching rights according to the position of teachers is guaranteed. 2) definition of childcare staff(childcare teacher); As in the Early Childhood Education Act, it is desirable to define teachers(directors and nursery teachers) and staff other than teachers. Next, childcare staff duties; As in the Early Childhood Education Act, it should be improved so that it is divided into director, supervisor, head teacher, teacher, and administrative staff to be more specifically defined. 3) Responsibility to protect the rights and interests of childcare teachers; In order to apply the law more effectively, it is necessary to improve the current voluntary regulations into mandatory regulations such as 'The state and local governments must actively promote necessary policies and prepare measures for training childcare teachers, improve working conditions, and protect their rights and interests.' I think it's possible.
Second, the main problems and improvement measures related to local government ordinances for improving treatment and rights of childcare staff are: 1) Responsibilities of local government heads; It seems desirable to stipulate the two contents together as ‘relevant systems and conditions and necessary policies must be actively pursued’ and ‘efforts must be made to create a social atmosphere’. 2) establishment of a basic (comprehensive) plan; It seems desirable to stipulate that it should be done every five years, and it is desirable that voluntary regulations should be improved to mandatory regulations such as ‘must be established and implemented’. 3) fact-finding; It should be improved with mandatory regulations such as ‘a fact-finding survey should be conducted every three years’. 4) rights protection support project; Since almost all local governments stipulate that 'the head of a local government may promote(implement) a project to improve the treatment of childcare teachers and improve their rights and interests.' 5) Establishment and operation of the Rights Protection Committee; Since the establishment of the most important committee must be established and operated to improve the treatment and rights of childcare staff, it would be desirable to have a mandatory rule rather than an arbitrary rule. 6) establishment of cooperation system; There were only three local governments that stipulated a mandatory regulation. If possible, it would be desirable to establish a cooperative system through mandatory regulations rather than voluntary regulations. 7) Others