Bupyeong District Councillor Jeong Yu-jeong: "We must bridge the gap in early childhood education integration and discover child-friendly projects unique to Bupyeong"

Jeong Yu-jeong, a member of the Administrative Welfare Committee of the Bupyeong District Council (Democratic Party, Bupyeong 3, Sangok 3, 4, and Sipjeong 1, 2), strongly urged the need to address educational disparities during the early childhood education integration process and to discover unique projects for Bupyeong as a child-friendly city in her first duty report for 2026.

During the 5th Administrative Welfare Committee meeting of the 274th extraordinary session held on the 3rd, Councillor Jeong focused her inquiries on the progress of early childhood education integration and the equity issues regarding support for foreign children, targeting the Early Childhood Care Division and the Child Welfare Division.

In her inquiry to the Early Childhood Care Division, Councillor Jeong checked the current status of childcare fee support for foreign children. She pointed out that "the difference in support between kindergartens and daycare centres for foreign children amounts to about 150,000 won," and urged, "As the original intention of early childhood education integration is to provide equitable educational services without discrimination, please actively communicate with the education office to ensure that economically vulnerable foreign children are not excluded in the field."

In response, the Bupyeong District Office stated, "We will continue to communicate with the education office's early childhood education integration team to discuss directions for ensuring equity in cost support."

Regarding the Child Welfare Division, she requested the discovery of 'new Bupyeong-style projects' that go beyond merely maintaining child-friendly city certification. Councillor Jeong emphasized the need for Bupyeong to take the initiative in considering creative projects that have not been attempted nationwide, beyond benchmarking excellent cases from other local governments, and highlighted the importance of actively incorporating voices from the field into administrative efforts.

In particular, Councillor Jeong drew attention by proposing innovative changes to the administrative organisation to the Director of Welfare. Citing the recent establishment of the 'Oeum Care Bureau' in Incheon, she suggested, "It is necessary to consider changing the names of departments or teams that have been fixed for decades to names that are resident-friendly and reflect changes in the times."

Councillor Jeong added, "Even in the name of a department, the willingness of the administration to listen to residents' opinions can be reflected, and I ask that you review benchmarking and innovation regarding team names and structures to be able to breathe closer to residents during the organisational diagnosis process scheduled for this year."