hankyoreh

Members the Citizens Movement Headquarters for Education Budget Expansion and other civic groups hold a press conference in front of the Hyoja-dong Community Center in Seoul’s Jongno District

The government announced plans to allocate a priority reserve fund of nearly US$250 million to offices of education that budgeted for the Nuri curriculum, while denying support to five others that did not.

It’s a move many are saying is likely to only exacerbate the ongoing childcare crisis, with offices in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and elsewhere being ruled ineligible for reserve support after already being unable to budget for the curriculum - a free childcare program for children between three and five - due to lack of funds. The offices of education themselves denounced what they called an “attempt to use taxpayer money to divide offices of education and bring them in line.”

Following a Cabinet meeting under President Park Geun-hye on Feb. 2, the administration announced that it had approved an outlay of 300 billion won (US$247.3 million) in reserve funds, including costs for school facility improvements, which are to be disbursed to local offices of education within one to two days.

“We plan to provide a total of 109.5 billion won (US$90.2 million) in priority support only to those 12 offices of education that have either fully or partially budgeted for the Nuri curriculum in their daycare centers and kindergartens,” it explained.

The measure comes after a Jan. 25 meeting of senior Blue House secretaries in which Park announced plans to “provide priority reserve funds to offices of education that have budgeted for the Nuri curriculum.”

Six offices have fully budgeted for the curriculum and will be receiving 100% reserve fund support. The list includes Daegu with 14.6 billion won (US$12.0 million), Daejeon with 8.5 billion won (US$7.0 million), Ulsan with 6.3 billion won (US$5.2 million), North Gyeongsang Province with 19.1 billion won (US$15.7 million), South Chungcheong Province with 14.4 billion won (US$11.9 million), and Sejong City with 2.2 billion won (US$1.8 million).

Another six that have partially budgeted for the curriculum are to receive 50% reserve fund support, including Busan with 10.8 billion won (US$8.9 million), North Chungcheong Province with 5.5 billion won (US$4.5 million), Incheon with 6.6 billion won (US$5.4 million), South Jeolla Province with 8.6 billion won (US$7.1 million), South Gyeongsang Province with 10.6 billion won (US$8.7 million), and Jeju with 2.3 billion won (US$1.9 million).

But no support is to be provided to five offices in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Gwangju, North Jeolla Province, and Gangwon Province that did not fully budget for the curriculum in any of their daycare centers or kindergartens.

“We plan to provide reserve funds in the future once they either budget for the Nuri curriculum or submit a budget plan,” explained the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

Park Jae-seong, secretary-general of the National Council of Governors of Education (NCGE), blasted what he called “the abuse of reserve funds as a way of pressuring certain metropolitan and provincial offices of education.”

“As an administration action by the central government, this is extremely inappropriate,” he added.

Park also said the decision was “difficult to accept because the aim of it is to divide offices of education and bring them in line.

“For this reason, the five offices that have not budgeted for the Nuri curriculum will not be changing their position.”

Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent and NCGE chairperson Jang Hui-gook called the decision “frustrating.”

“You don’t bring kindergartners in line with half an apple. The ones who are going to suffer here are the children, their parents, and the teachers,” he added.

A source with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said the city “wouldn’t be able to budget any more than a month and a half of the Nuri curriculum for daycare centers with the full reserve fund support of 49.6 billion won (US$40.9 million).”

“It’s like pissing on frozen feet to keep them warm,” the source complained.

“If you want to fix the childcare crisis, you give the reserve funds to the offices that couldn’t budget because they didn’t have the money. Why give support to the ones that have the budget to fund it completely?” the source asked.

Other observers say the move contradicts the purported aim of the reserve fund in the first place. The 300 billion won (US$247 million) in funds approved by the ruling and opposition parties in late 2015 was nominally to be used to improve school facilities. But with offices now enjoying greater means to budget for the curriculum, the decision could be seen as an indirect way of funding it.

“The reserve fund is supposed to be money paid for ‘reducing the interest burden associated with local bonds for improvements to school facilities with overheated classrooms in the summer, outdated bathrooms, and so forth,’” noted Kim Tae-nyeon, chairperson of The Minjoo Party of Korea’s special committee on the Nuri curriculum, in a statement.

“It’s money that’s supposed to be disbursed in a balanced way to meet metropolitan and provincial office of education needs, not something the administration can give or not give as it sees fit,” Kim said.

By Jeon Jeong-yun and Kim So-youn, staff reporters, and Ahn Kwan-ok, Gwangju correspondent

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