To enroll in kindergarten next year, apply at ‘Cheom School’ from November 1st.

Did you know that mothers from multicultural families who need to send their children to kindergarten must apply through the ‘To First School’ website?

The Ministry of Education announced that it will begin the ‘Cheom School’ service to recruit children for national, public, and private kindergartens for the 2024 school year from November 1.

Apply for kindergarten admission to the ‘Cheom School’!!!

  *What is ‘Cheom School’? : ‘Cheom School’ refers to an admission management system that conducts the admission process online rather than visiting the kindergarten in person to ensure fairness in kindergarten admission and provide convenience to parents.

  *What is your schedule? : Parents who wish for their child to enter kindergarten must register as a member on the ‘Cheom School’ site, which opens at 9 a.m. on November 1, and then register their child’s information. If you are eligible for priority recruitment, you can apply immediately from November 1st to 3rd. If you are eligible for general recruitment, apply between November 17th and 21st.

  *Competition is fierce? : At this time, you can apply for up to 3 applications for each recruitment type. So, you have to choose up to three kindergartens you want to send to and enter them in order. Since many applicants usually flock to good kindergartens, the final successful applicants are determined through a lottery. The priority recruitment drawing and result announcement will be held on November 9th. The general recruitment drawing and result announcement will be held on November 24th.

What is the difference between general recruitment and priority recruitment?

  *Check if you are eligible for priority recruitment! : The families that the Ministry of Education has set as priority recruitment targets for all kindergartens include recipients of basic livelihood security, the next-lowest class, and single-parent families. Multicultural families only apply if the kindergarten has designated them as priority recruitment targets. Therefore, you need to check the recruitment guidelines in advance to see if the kindergarten you want includes multicultural families as a priority for recruitment.

  *Applicable to all general recruitment: General recruitment refers to all families that are not eligible for priority recruitment. Since duplicate selection is limited in general recruitment, you must carefully select your preferred kindergarten.

By the way, it is also possible to apply directly by visiting the school instead of going through ‘Cheom School.’ In this case, document preparation will be complicated and difficult.

Korea’s passion for education starts from kindergarten

  *In the old days, people stood in line for 10 hours: When there was no ‘Cheom School.’ website, mothers would wait in line in front of the kindergarten from the night before registration started to send their children to the kindergarten of their choice. However, because this would not be fair, the Ministry of Education created ‘Cheom School.’ and changed it to a lottery method.

   *Kindergarten or daycare center, which is better? : Generally, daycare centers focus on childcare, and kindergartens focus on education.

The reason parents send their children to daycare centers is because they can leave their children there for 12 hours a day, from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., year-round, without any additional burden. The quality of education in kindergartens is higher than in this type of childcare. For example, it is said that native English speaking classes are often held once a week in daycare centers and three times a week in kindergartens. However, in kindergartens, parents must pay an additional fee to take after-school classes from 1 to 2 p.m., when the regular curriculum ends.

  *Which kindergarten is a good kindergarten? : It would be best to ask neighboring moms which kindergarten is best in the area where you live. However, there is no doubt that public schools are usually preferred over private institutions. Private kindergartens aim to make money, so they invest less in students, while public kindergartens do not have such restrictions, so they invest more in students. We hope all mothers from multicultural families can send their children to the kindergarten of their choice.

Mary Eve of Papaya Story