Child care
facilities

Date: 2023-03-31

To complement existing policies aimed at addressing Taiwan's falling birth rate, in 2017 the government began promoting a child care facilities plan under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program. The plan accelerates the expansion of public child care and education facilities, creates child care-friendly spaces, and provides care and education services at reasonable prices and guaranteed quality, with the aim of easing the economic burden of childrearing on parents and combating the birth rate crisis.

Two key objectives

■ Community-based public nurseries for ages 2 and under: The plan promotes the establishment of community-based public nurseries and nursery resource centers. It also adds or upgrades district social welfare service centers; family welfare centers for children and youth; and public institutions that provide emergency, medium or long-term placement services. Bringing these community resources together with national resources will support families raising children and help lighten their burden.

■ Friendly preschool spaces for ages 2-6: The plan provides subsidies for the setting up of new public preschool classes, providing more affordable places for children and more work opportunities for education and care service professionals. Using a one-time subsidy strategy for construction of new preschools, the plan helps local governments ease the problem of insufficient building space for public preschools, and gives families access to affordable, quality and sustainable educational and care services.