Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

Korea began the Nuri Curriculum for young children aged 3-5, integrating education and care from March, 2013. A curriculum can be a powerful instrument to increase the effectiveness of an educational system designed for human potential development. Recently, the issues related to early childhood curriculum have become focused on quality. The OECD selected five high quality early childhood curricula and analyzed the key issues in quality curriculum development. This article presents an analysis of Korea’s National Early Childhood Curriculum, the Nuri Curriculum, in terms of five important issues in quality curriculum. In the results, the 3rd key issue on the types of thinking and learning that work best for young children was satisfied in the OECD’s key issues. The 1st key issue on the individual child and the societal goals, the 2nd key issue on what children in the next generation need to learn, and the 4th key issue on the staff issue were all partially satisfied. However, the 5th key issue on the quality issue was not yet satisfied in those issues. Based on these findings, this article indicates why such a phenomenon occurred based on the Korean history, culture, and social context in ECEC sectors, and suggests some policy implications for improving the quality of early childhood curricula in Korea.