The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education begins a three-month subsidy programme for around 35,000 three-year-olds, advancing the city’s efforts to provide free early-years education and reduce parental financial burdens.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will begin subsidising education and childcare costs for about 35,000 three-year-olds from October, moving ahead with one of Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik’s key election pledges on free early-years education.
According to the office, the support will run for three months, from October to December, for children in public and private kindergartens and childcare centres across the capital. Public kindergartens will receive 20,000 won a month per child, private kindergartens 110,000 won and childcare centres 70,000 won. The money will be used for items such as after-school fees in public kindergartens, curriculum fees in private kindergartens and other necessary childcare expenses.
Parents will still pay any remaining balance after the subsidy is applied. The education office said the scheme will be funded through a supplementary budget, with money also set aside in the 2027 main budget so the support can continue in January and February next year.
The move comes as Seoul is trying to accelerate the Ministry of Education’s broader plan for the gradual expansion of free education and childcare. During the local election campaign, Jeong pledged to bring forward support for three-year-olds, arguing that the public sector should take greater responsibility for early childhood education.
The office also said it will monitor kindergartens and childcare centres to make sure they do not raise fees once the subsidy starts. That concern is not new: official fee information for Seoul shows that monthly childcare costs for three-year-olds can be substantial even after government support is counted, leaving many families with meaningful out-of-pocket payments.
The new subsidy comes alongside a separate pilot programme launched in August to improve adult-to-child ratios in three-year-old classes. In that scheme, the office is backing extra staff in 378 institutions, including 161 kindergartens and 217 childcare centres, in what it said is the first such initiative by a metropolitan or provincial education office in South Korea.
Jeong said the latest support was intended to strengthen the public responsibility for early childhood education and help make it the starting point of basic schooling. He added that the office would continue working towards an environment in which parents can raise children without financial strain.
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