J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry.  2014 Mar;25(1):1-5.

Current Situation and Policies of Early Childhood Care and Education in North Korea

• Lee SH
• Kwack YS
• Joung YS
• Lee SI
• Kim B
• Sohn SH
• Chung US
• Yang J
• Bhang SY
• Hwang JW
• Hong M
• Lee YJ
• Bahn GH

Abstract

In order to resolve the decline in population due to low birthrates, the South Korean government is expanding its free child care policies with an increased budget. In anticipating the effects and problems of our system, it will be worthy of attention to refer to the child care systems of other countries. In this paper, we reviewed the past and present policies and the current situation of the child care system in North Korea. North Korea started its free child care system earlier than that of South Korea, for the purpose of utilizing the women's labor force and rearing children to be revolutionary men of Juche type (Kimilsungism), in order to construct a communistic society. 'Child Care Education Law', which is the legal foundation of the child care system, regulates institutions for nursery schools and kindergarten and informs people that the country is responsible for support of child care. Despite their interest and progress in both quantity and quality in the child care system until the 1980s, the free child care system was partially disrupted, and discrepancies between ideology and actual situation were revealed due to economic difficulties from the 1990s. Because people's survival and physical health have been threatened, it is barely possible to find any study investigating the effect of institutional child care from early childhood and the instillation of unique ideology by group education from the preschool period on mental health.

Keyword

North Korea; Free Child Care; Mental Health; Child Daycare Center

MeSH Terms

Budgets
Child
Child Care
Child Day Care Centers
Democratic People's Republic of Korea*
Education*
Employment
Humans
Korea
Male
Mental Health
Schools, Nursery