Korea’s president Moon Jae-in in 2017 promised that 40% of children in daycare would attend public centres. By the end of his term: 25.3%
Moon Jae-inApril 2017 · candidate's 10 main pledges and pledge book filed with the National Election Commission (2017 presidential election)
«Expand public daycare centres to about 40% of all enrolled children»
At end-2022, 25.3% of daycare children (276,670 of 1,095,450) were in public centres against 40%; 31.1% in 2024.
The share grew every year: 12.9% in 2017, 31.1% in 2024. It grew also because fewer children were in daycare.
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Most daycare centres in South Korea are private. Moon Jae-in, the Democratic Party candidate, promised that within five years four children in ten would attend state or municipal centres. He won the election.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- Moon Jae-in, candidate's 10 main pledges and pledge book filed with the National Election Commission (2017 presidential election) quote
«국·공립 어린이집 이용아동기준 전체 대비 40% 수준까지 확대» — Expand public daycare centres to about 40% of all enrolled children
ЦИК Республики Корея, 10 главных обещаний кандидата Мун Чжэ Ина (2017)
- What happened did not come true
At end-2022, 25.3% of daycare children (276,670 of 1,095,450) were in public centres against 40%; 31.1% in 2024.
Quote: the candidate’s 10 main pledges filed with the National Election Commission (policy.nec.go.kr). Fact: Ministry of Health and Welfare, childcare statistics (index.go.kr): children in public centres divided by all children in daycare. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The pledge book names the goal for daycare centres and kindergartens together; only daycare centres are checked here. Fewer children were in daycare: 1.45 million in 2017 and 1.10 million in 2022, so the share rose faster than the number of places.
A question for this picture
What matters more to parents: the number of public places or the share of children in them?