Private kindergarten owners stage massive rally

Members of the Korea Kindergarten Association stage a rally in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday, to protest government plans for stricter regulations on private kindergartens. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

Private kindergarten owners are escalating their protest against government measures to introduce stricter regulations for their management.

An association of private kindergarten owners staged a rally, Monday, claiming the government intends to annihilate the nation's private institutes and instead increase public ones to provide uniform and pro-government education to preschoolers.

“The education ministry has tossed out a death penalty for preschool education,” said Lee Deok-sun, the head of the Korea Kindergarten Association (KKA), in the rally in front of the National Assembly that drew more than 30,000 people involved in the private kindergarten sector, according to the organizer.

“Although the government is stressing private kindergartens' accounting transparency through bill revisions, it is practically contriving to increase state-run kindergartens to give a standardized yet leftist education.”

The protest came as three bills, aimed at improving management and accounting transparency at private kindergartens, are pending at the Assembly, and the Ministry of Education has ordered them to adopt the state-run Edufine accounting system starting next month.

Last October, private kindergartens grabbed headlines after Rep. Park Yong-jin of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea revealed a large number of cases of corruption at them such as accounting fraud and budget misappropriation. Private kindergartens operate with both state subsidies and tuition from parents.

Lee also claimed the government was ignoring private kindergartens' commitment to caring for children for a long period of time when it could not afford to do so.

“Over the past 120 years, private kindergartens have stepped in for the budget-less government to care for preschoolers, but it does not allow us to get a return on our past investments and closes our businesses,” she said.

While the association had earlier opposed Edufine by saying it infringes on their property rights, it now says ― following public criticism and the government's stern attitude ― it is not entirely opposing the state-run accounting system, which is already being used by public kindergartens and schools.

“We are not completely opposed to the Edufine implementation. If an accounting system is adequate for private kindergartens, we are ready to accept it,” a KKA official said.

Earlier in the day, the ministry promulgated an ordinance to force large private kindergarten to use the accounting program. Some 580 kindergartens with at least 200 children will have to introduce it from March 1 and all kindergartens starting March 2020.

The ministry said any institutes that do not adopt the system will face administrative punishments, including partial financial support suspension and a ban on recruitment.

Regarding the KKA's claim that the ministry was not trying to talk to them over the issue, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said talks would be meaningless if the kindergarten owners stick to business-as-usual at the institutes. “If they want to talk, they need to start from how they will meet social and public demand,” she told reporters.

In addition to the government's attitude, more and more KKA members are leaving the association in favor of more moderate bodies. Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon plans to meet with representatives of another association of private kindergarten owners to discuss the adoption of Edufine. The body, a moderate derivative from the KKA with 700 members, is willing to accept the program. The KKA has 3,100 members.