Many civic groups expressed skepticism about the ruling Grand National Party’s abrupt pledge to halve college tuition from the current levels, calling it typical “populism.”

They criticized the ruling party’s pledge as a politically-oriented and unrealistic ahead of the country’s general and presidential elections next year.

“I think it’s an unreasonable. First, I’m skeptical how they will secure such a huge budget to support the initiative,” said Song Deok-jin, an official from the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE). “Even if they do have a plan, I think the required budget will come largely from new taxes and consequently the burden will be placed right back on citizens.”

Song said politician’s populism is now at a worrisome level, arguing they make groundless or unreasonable promises just to get more votes without considering practical measures or reality.

However, student associations and liberal civic groups demanded the ruling party not backpedal. The People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said, “It’s long overdue. We want the government and ruling party to halve the tuition fees like they said they would.”

Student associations also called for the government to take practical steps to reduce the weight of tuition.

“If this pledge ends up being an empty promise, the government and the ruling party will face repercussions from the people,” Upschool.net, an association of universities, said in a statement.

The GNP Sunday announced it will push to halve college tuition to ease the financial burdens of students and their parents.

“There are countries where universities charge no tuition, and I think we should push to reduce college tuition by at least half,” Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, floor leader of the ruling party, said during a news briefing. “Although it can be a heavy burden on the nation’s finances, we will discuss it with students, parents, universities and the government to reduce the high cost of college education.”

They are considering increasing the volume of annual scholarships to students from the lowest income brackets up to 10 million won from the current 5 million won in order to fully support their tuition. It will also offer up to 50 percent of the tuition to students from households at the bottom half of the income list, Hwang said.

Another party official, Kim Sung-sik, said the party estimates about 2.5 trillion won is required for the plan, which can be secured by withholding tax reductions and restructuring annual expenditures.

Tuition reduction is among the most popular political pledges ahead of elections, as most private universities and colleges have raised tuition by 3 percent on average every year.

President Lee Myung-bak made a presidential campaign pledge to cut university tuition by half, simply to be accused of populism after he failed to do so.

The government, instead, came up with a “study-now-pay-later” loan program for financially-strapped students, but it has not been so successful due to a complicated application procedure and high interest rates.

Currently, only 150,000 students are on the program, less than one fourth of the government’s expected figure. The government has also asked universities to freeze tuition costs to a lack of response. Schools cite financial difficulties from previous years of tuition freezes.

Some politicians even from GNP said the ruling party should come up with more practical and reasonable pledges.

“GNP used to denounce the opposition parties’ political pledges as populism, including the cuts in tuition, but now they are doing exactly what they criticized. Such important matters should be discussed with other party members in a thorough manner,” a GNP lawmaker said.

By Kim Tae-jong

e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr