Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, presidential candidate of the People's Party, on Tuesday vowed to promote the independent management of private kindergartens, calling for restraints upon large public ones.

His remark instantly ignited a backlash from parents here as it contradicted his past gesture to expand state-led childcare, as well as the public notion that a lack of state and social support in child-raising is a core reason behind the country's low birthrates.

“I will curb additional establishments of large kindergartens which are annexed (to public schools and organizations),” said Ahn Tuesday in a conference for children educators.

“As for private kindergartens, I shall guarantee their independence and acknowledge their respective operation policies according to facilities.”

But such a move to regulate public kindergartens came under fire, not only for the current lack of state-backed daycare institutions but also for his apparent change of stance.

Back in 2014, when Ahn was co-chief of the then-main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy along with his current election rival Moon Jae-in, Ahn had steered the party’s campaign for the June local elections. Of the top 10 key pledges was a plan to expand the number of public kindergartens and to promote government-led childcare.

Also, his suggestion of boosting independence for private kindergartens was largely seen as a contradiction to the metropolitan government’s policies. Pressed by calls for more public kindergartens, Seoul City has been struggling to add state funds or a public monitoring system even in private institutions, a compromising move to balance autonomy and public interests.

“Those working in private schools and kindergartens are crucial factors in (the country's) public education policies,” the presidential aspirant said.

“But no sufficient support has yet been provided to revise the related laws and systems.”

Amid the burgeoning disputes on the issue, Ahn explained himself later on, claiming that he did not mean to suppress the establishment of public kindergartens.

“What I meant was that I will control the number of large annexed kindergartens, not that I will cut down that of public kindergartens,” he wrote on his Facebook account.

By Bae Hyun-jung ()


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com