Parents furious over governor's decision to end free school lunches

By Kim Rahn

Hong Joon-pyo

Parents in South Gyeongsang Province are protesting against the provincial government’s scheduled end to providing free school meals for all but the poorest students starting Wednesday.

Now that they will have to pay up to 70,000 won ($63) a month per student for school lunches, parents are vehemently criticizing Governor Hong Joon-pyo’s decision, while Hong stands firm in the opinion that the budget would be better spent on supporting education for the poor.

According to the provincial government and the regional educational office, the former will not provide some 64.2 billion won that is needed for the free school lunch program for all children, regardless of their financial status. It will keep offering the programs to only around 66,000 students who are underprivileged.

This means that about 218,000 students will have to pay for lunch starting in April.

The monthly payments will range from 40,000 won to 70,000 won per student ― 450,000 won a year on average for an elementary schoolchild and 620,000 won for high school students. If a family has two or three children, the financial burden will be quite large.

Parents have held protest rallies around the province. In a candlelight vigil at a park in Tongyeong on Friday, placards read: “Even Gangnam (one of Seoul’s most affluent districts) offers free school meals to all children including the rich, while South Gyeongsang Province does not.”

One mother at the rally said, “We just want to make all children, whether they are rich or poor, have meals together without discrimination. If underprivileged children seek free lunches, they have to ‘prove’ their poor financial status with related documents. It will hurt them and can lead to bullying by rich peers.”

Some parents are even refusing to send their children to school. On Friday, 31 out of 37 students at Ssanggye Elementary School in Hadong County did not go to school but instead staged a rally with their parents.

Parents in some counties have discussed ways of protest through online communities, including refusing to pay the meal fee, preparing packed lunches or having children come home for lunch.

Despite the protests, Hong remains firm ― he plans to spend 64.3 billion won on educational support for poor children. He calls liberal educational office chiefs’ free school meal programs “populist” policy, saying a school is a place to study, not to have meals.

“While the budget is limited, educational authorities focus on free lunches and this has resulted in poor school facilities and students’ low academic ability,” he said on his Facebook page.

“My policy will provide equal opportunity for study to underprivileged children, helping them realize their dreams.”