▲ Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Ahn Min-suk delivers a welcoming speech at the "Wall-Breaking Agreement Ceremony" held at Wondon Elementary School in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, on the 9th.
Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Ahn Min-suk met with the leaders of both the Democratic Party of Korea and the People Power Party on the 10th to express concerns regarding the government's revision of the Local Education Finance Grants Act.
On the afternoon of that day, Superintendent Ahn visited the National Assembly to meet sequentially with Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok and People Power Party leader Chang Dong-hyeok. During the meetings, he conveyed the education sector's sentiment surrounding the abolition of the local education finance grant linkage system and emphasized the need for collecting opinions.
On the 3rd of this month, the Ministry of Education submitted a revision bill for the Local Education Finance Grants Act to the National Assembly, which abolishes the existing linkage system that automatically allocates 20.79 percent of internal taxes as the funding source for local education finance grants.
Instead of the linkage system, the Ministry of Education decided to calculate education grants using a formula multiplying the previous year's education grants by the recent three-year average annual current growth rate and 35 percent of the school-age population change rate.
Applying this government proposal would set next year's education grants at 78.9 trillion won, which is around 20 trillion won less than initially expected.
In the case of Gyeonggi Province, grants are estimated to decrease by approximately 3 trillion won due to the aftermath of this revision.
In a broadcasting radio interview following his meetings with the leaders of both parties, Superintendent Ahn explained, "I asked the two leaders to listen to the voices of the education sector," adding, "It is a system disappearing for the first time in 55 years, and the public deliberation process in between was severely lacking."
He added, "I also told them that we must not give up on education, and proposed a new discourse on education-led growth in the AI era."
Furthermore, Superintendent Ahn requested cooperation from the National Assembly for the amendment of the Child Welfare Act to guarantee legitimate educational activities, and the revision of related laws to guarantee political rights for teachers.
In the same interview, he emphasized, "If you scold children even a little, teachers are reported for child abuse. That is why the Child Welfare Act must be amended so that no liability is imposed on legitimate educational activities."
Regarding teachers' political rights, he said, "We are the only country in the world that binds teachers' political rights," and asked, "How can we be expected to teach democratic citizenship after turning teachers into political pariahs?"
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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