The free high school education program, one of President Park Geun-hye’s election pledges, will not kick off next year due to budget restraints, the Education Ministry said Thursday.

Government budget plans for 2015, revealed early in the day, showed that the ministry had not allocated any money for the free high school tuition plan, or for free child care programs for preschoolers and elementary school students.

“Originally, the ministry requested 3 trillion won ($2.88 billion) for the three programs but was turned down,” a ministry official said. “It is still too early to definitively say that the program has foundered. The increased tax revenue from the tobacco price hike may allow us to carry it out.”

He said some 61 percent of the students were currently receiving financial aid for their tuition, both from the public and private sectors. Officials denied speculation that the Park administration would scrap the program completely.

Free high school education, in which the government covers tuition and other school-related costs for students, has been one of Park’s key pledges in the 2012 presidential election. The initial plan was to start the program with freshmen in 2015 and expand it to all three grades by 2017.

The overall spending for next year will be 55.1 trillion won, with the government increasing the budget for higher education by 21.8 percent to 10.5 trillion won. But the budget earmarked for preschoolers and elementary, middle and high school students decreased 3.5 percent to 39.7 trillion won.

Mindful of the reports that several school buildings across the country face safety hazards, the ministry said it has assigned additional money to repairing university buildings. The money for repairing primary and secondary school facilities, however, will come from government subsidies to local education offices, which were cut by 1.3 trillion won to 39.5 trillion won.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)