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Korean children under school age usually attend day-care centers supervised by the Ministry of Health and Welfare or kindergartens supervised by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. Though the purpose of the foundation of day-care centers was different from that of kindergartens, the issue of integration of those facilities was raised because of their similarity: both facilities are for children from 3 up to 5 and they esteem child education. At last, a bill for children Education Act has been prepared, whose point is that both facilities should be integrated. The dispute about the bill. however, is still going on without reaching any conclusion. So this study is to examine how some nations manage their systems of infant care and education in order to got some helpful ideas which may be applied to the Korean situation. According to the category of Gilbert & Specht , three kinds of systems are compared: a dual system in Korea, Japan and the United States, a unitary system in Sweden, and an age-based dual system in France, in terms of regulations involved, administrative and financial system, types of institutions, programs, and teacher training and teacher’s qualifications.
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