The primary purpose of this study is to examine the evaluation systems of the child care centers in Korea. We normally think of the five-year-olds as the kindergarten group and the four-year-olds, and sometimes even the three-year-olds, as the nursery...
The primary purpose of this study is to examine the evaluation systems of the child care centers in Korea. We normally think of the five-year-olds as the kindergarten group and the four-year-olds, and sometimes even the three-year-olds, as the nursery school group. Provision of school services for children of these ages grew out of a real interest both in promoting socialization through developing social consciousness and in generating fair opportunity for the protection and growth of each individual personality. What children experience during their early years has a marked effect upon their health and personality throughout life.
The good school system seeks to establish at an early age agreeable experience in group situations and to conserve and improve the vast potential of basic human resources embodied in individual children. Therefore, it is important for the public authorities to provide the senses of early child education with some of the standardized rules and regulations. In order to meet the needs and demands of parents of the kids in child care centers, the public authorities developed some of the evaluation systems to generate a favorable educational environment. This study is about the evaluation systems of child care centers.
This research is consisted of five chapters. Chapter one depicts the purposes of the study and explains the research methods taken. Chapter two begins with the review of the previous studies about the issues of evaluation systems. There are such three different evaluation systems as internal evaluation systems, external evaluation systems, and accreditation systems on the voluntary basis. We explained these three evaluation systems specifically in chapter two.
In chapter three, based upon the evaluation systems explained in the early chapter, we completely depict how these evaluation system work together in the processes of controlling and monitoring the child care centers by the concerned public authorities. We also find out some of the problems in association with the evaluation systems including: ① overlapping, ② establishment of proper laws and regulations, ③ fairness of evaluation contents and contexts.
Chapter four extracts findings together and considers their implications for the study of evaluation systems as follow: first of all, in order for the evaluation systems to be effective, a relevant law should be enacted in terms of fairness and justifications.
Secondly, the Korean early-child-education services are mainly provided by the private sectors. However, the private and public sectors are, at the same time, under the government controls in generating quality of education, nutrition, and safety, and so on. But the public child care facilities have been funded by the governments. In consideration of the fact that more than 85% of child care centers in Korea run by the private sector, the government should reconsider publicness and fairness in rearing child care centers.
Thirdly, one of most serious problems on which the government has faced is the lack of attentions among the early-child-education community about the evaluation systems. In order for the evaluation and accreditation systems to be successfully executed, an advocate group supporting the programs is essential. However, only a few public hearings was made in generating the consensus of the program among the child care centers. Most of child care centers survey answered respond that they are not well informed about what the programs are really intended to. Therefore, in order for the evaluation programs to be successfully implemented, the government should pay great attentions to inform the child care centers the evaluation and accreditation systems.
Fourth, in Korea, we have normally distinctive five types of child care facilities, each of which has the different purposes of serving the very young students. Without considering the different purposes and types of the child care facilities, the fact that Ministry of Health and Welfare evaluate them by one or few evaluation criteria that creates problems. Therefore, it should be noted that the evaluation criteria should be made depending upon the types and purposes of the child care facilities.
Finally, the government should reconsider timing and range of coverage of the evaluation and accreditation systems.
In conclusion, In directing education toward the continuous improvement of society, attention must be given to a consciousness of the nature and basis of the universal values and constant preferences in our culture as well as of an choice among them. Progress depend, then, not only upon the existence of alternatives but also upon the awareness and acceptance of some common base from which to consider the alternatives and to relate them. The same is true to the establishment of the evaluation systems that we must keep thinking of the nature and basis of the universal values of the early-child-education. In this way, we can develop a concrete type of accreditation and evaluation systems.