'K-Edupine' Introduced in Over 3,800 Private Kindergartens Nationwide

Mandatory with the Passage of the 'Kindergarten 3 Laws'... Blocking 'Accounting Fraud'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Starting next month, the national management accounting system 'K-Edufine' will be introduced to all private kindergartens nationwide.

The Ministry of Education announced on the 20th that following the passage of the 'Kindergarten 3 Acts (Private School Act, Early Childhood Education Act, School Meals Act)' at the National Assembly plenary session last month, K-Edufine will be introduced to all kindergartens, including 3,801 private kindergartens.

While Edufine, used by elementary, middle, high schools, and public kindergartens, has about 10 menu options, the private kindergarten K-Edufine displays only five essential accounting functions as menus: project management, budget management, income management, expenditure management, and budget settlement.

Three convenience functions are also provided: tax management to view tax invoices, financial analysis to see the accounting status at a glance, and clean finance to check for abnormal accounting records.

With the introduction of Edufine, private kindergartens will manage income and expenditure by preparing separate expenditure budgets for each funding source, such as government subsidies and beneficiary (parents) contributions. When spending the budget, the vendor's name and business registration number must be entered into Edufine before recording the expenditure.

Previously, many private kindergartens managed government subsidies and parents' contributions in a single account, which led to widespread accounting fraud, such as collecting cash for field trip fees or graduation album fees and processing costs cheaply to pocket the difference.

An official from the Ministry of Education said, "Now, all income and expenditure records of kindergartens will be transparently managed," adding, "This will prevent not only fraudulent spending but also accounting accidents, and improve the efficiency of accounting operations from the perspective of kindergarten administrators."

The Ministry of Education has selected about 330 instructors to support user training for private kindergartens and is also providing various manuals and task-specific scenarios. Additionally, for small private kindergartens with two or fewer classes, accounting procedures will be partially improved to allow the principal to concurrently handle approval tasks.

Private kindergartens started using the budget preparation function in K-Edufine from the 19th, the income and expenditure functions will be activated from March 1, and the settlement and clean finance functions will be launched from May.

On the afternoon of the 20th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye plans to visit Gagyeong Kindergarten, a private kindergarten in Cheongju, Chungbuk, to observe the budget preparation process using private kindergarten K-Edufine for this year and hold a meeting with kindergarten officials and parents.