Public preschool teachers angered by drama's disparaging narrative

A poster for KBS drama “Queen’s House” / Courtesy of KBS

The preschool teachers' union in Korea protested the negative portrayal of public kindergartens in the KBS drama "Queen's House" on Friday, arguing that it severely undermines the educational value of public early childhood education.

The union, under the umbrella of the Korean Federation of Teachers' Unions, issued a statement expressing deep regret over the depiction of public kindergartens in the first episode of the drama, which aired on April 28.

The episode depicted the kidnapping of the only child of Kang Jae-in (played by Ham Eun-jung), the eldest daughter of the fictional conglomerate YL Group, and Hwang Ki-chan (Park Yoon-jae), her husband and the group's strategic planning director.

While confronting the paternal grandmother after the grandchild's abduction, the child's maternal grandmother questioned, "Why did you send your grandchild to a public kindergarten? If you had sent him to the most expensive private kindergarten, this wouldn't have happened.”

"Connecting public kindergartens to child abduction and distortedly portraying them as a 'cheap choice' can foster prejudice against public early childhood education and lead to the erosion of public trust," the union said in its statement.

"Furthermore, this undermines the morale of public kindergarten teachers who are doing their best to educate children, and negatively impacts their pride in their profession. The quality of education is not simply determined by 'high cost,'" the union added.

The union also demanded an official apology and measures to prevent recurrence from KBS, urging the state-run broadcaster not to forget its responsibility to the public interest, fairness and educational values.

KBS responded quickly, offering an apology the same day. It stated that there was no intention to disparage public kindergarten teachers, and suspended reruns of the drama's first episode.

"The drama's setting where the main character Kang Jae-in's son, Eun-ho, attends a public kindergarten implies a level of trust in public kindergartens, and there was no intention to disparage public kindergartens," the drama's production team said.

"However, we have taken the opinions of viewers and the concerns of public kindergarten teachers seriously, acknowledging that the dialogue could create false prejudice and misunderstanding about public kindergartens and severely undermine public trust in public education. Therefore, we suspended reruns of the first episode on all platforms."