An association of South Korea's private preschools said Sunday it would press ahead with a plan to postpone the opening of the spring semester, slated for the following day, despite the government's warning of stern punitive measures.
The Korea Kindergarten Association (KKA) claimed that the education authorities are putting unjust pressure on its members nationwide and even made false claims about the number of preschools to postpone the start of the semester.
The group is fiercely protesting against the government's drive to reform private preschools that receive state subsidies.
There have been continued reports of corruption and other irregularities involving the use of taxpayers' money by a number of local preschool operators.
The government plans to introduce Edufine, a state-managed accounting system, for all major preschools. It earlier announced that only around 190 of more than 3,800 private preschools are scheduled to join the association's move to put off the start of the semester.
But the KKA said that a total of 1,533 schools will take part.
It urged the government to stop trying to control their "private property."
It argued that establishing a school has required at least 3 billion won ($2.67 million) worth of private assets. Thus, it added, there should be reasonable accounting of the cost to set up private preschools.
The association even threatened to consider the closure of schools and called on President Moon Jae-in to handle the matter, not his education minister. (Yonhap)