Infant Play School Deceiving Parents with "Photo-Only Meals"

Expired Ingredients... Leftover Rice Steamed and Served
Director "Gave Extra If Children Wanted" Countersues

On the 16th, MBC reported that a play school in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, where the monthly tuition exceeds one million won, provided meals to children that looked completely different from the meal photos shown to parents. Photo by MBC News Desk broadcast screen capture.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] A play school with a monthly tuition fee exceeding 1 million won was found to have provided meals to children that were completely different from the meal photos shown to parents.

On the 16th, MBC News Desk reported that such an incident occurred at a play school for young children in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which operates native English teacher classes, ballet, math, and art classrooms.

This fact was revealed when an employee of the play school, unable to tolerate the situation, informed the parents.

According to the employee, the play school sometimes steamed leftover rice from the previous day and served it to the children.

Also, the tomato sauce in the kitchen was found to be expired by one year at the time of inspection, and the pizza cheese had exceeded its expiration date by as much as two years.

The monthly tuition fee for this play school exceeds 1 million won.

When parents who learned of this requested refunds, the play school simply closed down. As a result, parents who had paid tuition fees quarterly or even up to a year in advance faced losing a total of 200 million won in tuition fees.

The director reportedly immediately filed for bankruptcy in court and was granted debt relief.

Parents filed complaints with the Seongnam Office of Education, but were told that since the play school is legally classified as an academy, there are limits to management and supervision.

Ultimately, the parents filed a police complaint against the director on charges of fraud.

The director stated, "I did not misuse the tuition fees elsewhere, and I had no choice but to close the school because I could not handle the sudden collective refund requests."

He also admitted that the meals were different from the photos posted online but argued, "If the children wanted more, we gave them extra," and counter-sued the parents for obstruction of business.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.