Parents of children aged 0 to 5 in South Korea will receive enrollment and admission information through mobile phone alerts, and will be able to bookmark daycare centers and kindergartens of interest on a government portal and apply directly from there.
The Ministry of Education said on the 15th that it is substantially upgrading the service ahead of applications for daycare and kindergarten enrollment for the 2027 school year, which open Nov. 2.
The overhaul focuses on easing difficulties faced by parents and by daycare centers and kindergartens during the application process. In 2024, the ministry consolidated applications for daycare enrollment and kindergarten admission into a single portal, childinfo.go.kr.
First, the ministry will provide enrollment and admission information in advance through a push alert service on mobile phones.
Parents of children aged 0 to 5 will receive the information through a mobile alert service tied to the welfare membership program.
Previously, parents had to search for and check application schedules themselves. They can now easily confirm both application schedules and information about individual institutions.
A new feature also lets parents save daycare centers and kindergartens of interest in advance and apply immediately. The portal has added a bookmarking function.
In addition, child information and supporting documents can now be registered and submitted more easily through links to government administrative data.
Previously, parents had to enter their child's information manually each time they applied. They can now import family records and register the information with a single click.
Documents needed to verify eligibility, such as family relationship certificates, no longer have to be obtained in person and delivered to the institution. Parents can instead verify or submit them online using administrative data provided through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's public MyData service.
"This service improvement focuses on allowing parents to apply for admission and enrollment easily and conveniently in one place, regardless of whether the institution is a kindergarten or a daycare center," said Kang Min-kyu, director general of the ministry's early childhood policy bureau.