By Chung Ah-young
The growing conflict between the central government and regional educational offices over the free preschool program, called Nuri Curriculum, is causing anxiety for parents of young children.
They worry about whether they will have to pay for the program themselves if both the central government and the education offices refuse to fund them, with the conflict showing no signs of resolution.
Representing superintendents of educational offices from 17 cities and provinces nationwide, the National Council of Governors of Education (NCGE) Wednesday criticized the government's threat to seek all possible measures including legal action against the offices that refuse to finance the free childcare and preschool programs.
The council's reaction came a day after Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan's speech about possible legal actions. He stressed that it is the "legal duty of the educational offices" to set aside a budget for the program.
"It is a pity that Choi mentioned the legal action to pass the buck to us," said Jang Hui-guk, superintendent of Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and president of NCGE, at the press conference.
"We want to ask him if the government has the will to stop the free preschool program crisis," he said.
The council said the government's reaction will not help solve the problem.
"If the government takes legal action, we will deploy all means to take counteractions," he said.
The council proposed an emergency meeting with heads of both the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition parties along with heads of the related ministries as soon as possible in order to resolve the issue.
The government has pressured regional educational offices to earmark budgets for the program, as most of the offices have failed to finance the program, citing lack of money.
In 2013, the government adopted the Nuri Curriculum for preschoolers to benefit children at both daycare centers and kindergartens, although the daycare centers are under the authority of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and kindergartens are supervised by the Ministry of Education.
Citing this, the education offices claim no responsibility for financing the daycare centers. But the government argues that it revised the regulations to oblige the offices to budget the program for both daycare centers and kindergartens.
So far, educational offices in Seoul, Gwangju and South Jeolla and Gyeonggi provinces have refused to allocate any money for the programs. Some offices only budget for kindergartens while others decided to fund the program just for the short term.
Some 4.02 trillion won _ 2.13 trillion won for daycare centers and 1.89 trillion won for kindergartens _ is required to support the 1.3 million children aged three to five who are entitled to the programs.
"It is deplorable that parents are suffering as the central government and local educational offices are passing the buck off on each other," said Yang Yoon-mi, who has two sons in Seoul.
"I have two children. If this game of chicken continues, parents cannot but take all the burdens. With this poor policy, I don't think the birthrate can be boosted anytime soon."
Monthly support for one child is 220,000 won, so in Yang's case she will have to pay 440,000 won per month if the budget is not allocated in time.
The growing conflict between the central government and regional educational offices over the free preschool program, called Nuri Curriculum, is causing anxiety for parents of young children.
They worry about whether they will have to pay for the program themselves if both the central government and the education offices refuse to fund them, with the conflict showing no signs of resolution.
Representing superintendents of educational offices from 17 cities and provinces nationwide, the National Council of Governors of Education (NCGE) Wednesday criticized the government's threat to seek all possible measures including legal action against the offices that refuse to finance the free childcare and preschool programs.
The council's reaction came a day after Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan's speech about possible legal actions. He stressed that it is the "legal duty of the educational offices" to set aside a budget for the program.
"It is a pity that Choi mentioned the legal action to pass the buck to us," said Jang Hui-guk, superintendent of Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and president of NCGE, at the press conference.
"We want to ask him if the government has the will to stop the free preschool program crisis," he said.
The council said the government's reaction will not help solve the problem.
"If the government takes legal action, we will deploy all means to take counteractions," he said.
The council proposed an emergency meeting with heads of both the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition parties along with heads of the related ministries as soon as possible in order to resolve the issue.
The government has pressured regional educational offices to earmark budgets for the program, as most of the offices have failed to finance the program, citing lack of money.
In 2013, the government adopted the Nuri Curriculum for preschoolers to benefit children at both daycare centers and kindergartens, although the daycare centers are under the authority of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and kindergartens are supervised by the Ministry of Education.
Citing this, the education offices claim no responsibility for financing the daycare centers. But the government argues that it revised the regulations to oblige the offices to budget the program for both daycare centers and kindergartens.
So far, educational offices in Seoul, Gwangju and South Jeolla and Gyeonggi provinces have refused to allocate any money for the programs. Some offices only budget for kindergartens while others decided to fund the program just for the short term.
Some 4.02 trillion won _ 2.13 trillion won for daycare centers and 1.89 trillion won for kindergartens _ is required to support the 1.3 million children aged three to five who are entitled to the programs.
"It is deplorable that parents are suffering as the central government and local educational offices are passing the buck off on each other," said Yang Yoon-mi, who has two sons in Seoul.
"I have two children. If this game of chicken continues, parents cannot but take all the burdens. With this poor policy, I don't think the birthrate can be boosted anytime soon."
Monthly support for one child is 220,000 won, so in Yang's case she will have to pay 440,000 won per month if the budget is not allocated in time.
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