The older the child is, the longer the waiting time was. (image: POSCO DAEWOO)
SEOUL, Jul. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A survey found that 33.5 percent of infants aged 0 to 5 had to wait before finding a spot at a daycare center or kindergarten.
According to a survey conducted by Korea Institute of Child Care and Education and released Wednesday, 33.5 percent of those surveyed had experience waiting before entering daycare centers and kindergartens.
The ratio of those who had to wait was up from 22.6 percent in 2012 and 27.7 percent in 2015.
By age, 2-year-olds were most likely to have to wait at 43.4 percent, followed by 37.7 percent for 3-year-olds, 34.9 percent for 5-year-olds, 34.2 percent for 1-year-olds, 32.7 percent for 4-year-olds and 21 percent for those who had yet to celebrate their first birthday.
The ratio of waiting experience by residential area was 40.6 percent in large cities compared to 33.9 percent in small cities and 15.4 percent in rural areas.
The average waiting period for each age group was 6.1 months for those younger than 1, 6.7 months for 1-year-olds, 7.3 months for 2-year-olds, 7.7 months for 3-year-olds, 8.2 months for 4-year-olds and 8.7 months for 5-year-olds.
This means the older the child is, the longer the waiting time was.
The average waiting period for each region was 9.2 months for large cities, 6.2 months for small cities and 4.3 months for rural areas.
The research team suggested that the fact that the waiting experience and waiting period continue to increase year by year is due to the increasing proportion of infants and children who use daycare centers or kindergartens.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
