[사회]What is the first impression of a ‘conservative’ education committee chairperson on a ‘progressive’ superintendent of education? “Caring teacher, I asked you to come with me.”

◆Announcer Park Gwi-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gwi-bin): This is a special time for wise citizens with the Seoul Metropolitan Council, the legislative body that represents the voices of 10 million Seoul citizens. Today, we will be with Seoul City Council member Park Sang-hyuk, who serves as the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s Education Committee. Senator, welcome back.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Education Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council (hereinafter referred to as Park Sang-hyuk): Hello.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Please first say hello to our Wise Radio Life listeners and citizens. There is a camera in front of you.

◇Sanghyuk Park: Hello, YTN Radio listeners. This is Park Sang-hyuk, the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s Education Committee, who is taking care of our children. Thank you for inviting me to this wise radio life.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Yes, thank you. You took some time out of your busy schedule these days to come out. I’ll tell you that in a moment. First of all, he is the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s education committee. You must be looking into all the pending issues regarding education in Seoul, and I heard that this is the first time that the chairman of the education committee has changed from the Democratic Party to the People Power Party. How are you feeling? Please tell us how you feel about winning.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: It has been 12 years since I became the chairman of the Education Committee.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I see. Yes.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: So, as a result, expectations from those around us are now very high, and since we have to participate in legislative activities together with lawmakers without having to do anything, we feel a great sense of responsibility in this regard, and we are conducting this training a little differently than in the past. I also have other thoughts about wanting to lead. Well, anyway, the Board of Education is for our children. I have the idea that I will do everything based on children’s standards, regardless of ideology or anything like that.

◆Park Gwi-bin: You recently had a meeting with the newly inaugurated Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik. I heard that Mayor Oh Se-hoon was also there. How did you feel when you first met?

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: When I first met Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik, I immediately felt like he was a teacher. I felt like he was a kind teacher. When we met then, we talked about many things. We had a lot of honest conversations for about 40 minutes. Next to my thoughts on education, there was quite a bit of communication between the superintendent and the new superintendent about their thoughts on education and the direction it should take in the future. But the most important thing was that some of our children were in there. So, as you said earlier, you and Mayor Oh Se-hoon are meeting each other, and when I first met, I said, just go with the chairman, so I’ll go with you.

◆Park Gwi-bin: That’s how you achieved it. Are you looking forward to working with the new superintendent in the future?

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: Yes, of course, you can look forward to it now. Anyway, his perspective on the world is different, and his thoughts may also be different, but in the end, considering that his point of view is our children, I think it is not that difficult. In many areas, we are now trying to strengthen communication through cooperation and understanding each other. There was a big agreement on that. It’s been about 15 days since you’ve been here, and Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik has a very busy schedule, so I’ve seen him 7 times.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Haven’t you seen it very often?

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: I think I saw it almost once every two days.

◆Park Gwi-bin: You must have become my best friend.

◇Sanghyuk Park: I’m thinking like a teacher.

◆Park Gwi-bin: So, the superintendent of education is now a progressive superintendent of education, and the chairman of the education committee is a conservative chairman of the education committee, so when I listened to them, I found out that if we meet once every two days and communicate continuously through dialogue, the distance can be narrowed little by little, and maybe even better. A plan may come out, and I have high hopes for it.

◇Sanghyuk Park: Of course. The first thing I said to Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik was that it was my belief that the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education was our children. And for our children, I said that all education policies and budget implementation will be based on our children. That is my belief. In the end, I think the goal of education is to raise our children well and healthily so that they can study in a good environment and that our role is to enable them to go out into society and realize the dreams they have as they grow up. The Superintendent of Education also has the same position on that.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Of course. So, I am looking forward to the two of you working together very well in the future, but in the meantime, I would like to ask you about a current issue in the education sector. Last April, the Seoul City Council passed a bill to abolish the Student Human Rights Ordinance. The application for suspension of execution was accepted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, but Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik, like the teacher you just mentioned, expressed his position that the student human rights ordinance should be maintained. What is your position as the chairman of the education committee here?

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: Anyway, in the first half of the year, there was a big difference in opinion between the Superintendent of Education and the Seoul City Council regarding the student human rights ordinance. That led to another legal judgment, but anyway, the original function of the Seoul City Council is now a representative body for citizens. So, in that sense, the abolition ordinance was also carried out in response to the will of the citizens. Then there is an alternative to this now. As an alternative to the Student Human Rights Ordinance, an ordinance on the rights of school members has now been passed. Next, it may be a little different in that sense, but there are certain aspects where we have to wait a little for the law’s judgment. Then, in that regard, we and the Office of Education communicate a little more to find out what is right for our children, and there are school members, teachers, and parents as well. I think if we think about these things together, we might come up with a good solution.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I understand. I am with Assemblyman Park Sang-hyuk, who is the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s Education Committee. When members of the Seoul City Council come out, we hold a small corner. This is a citizen report by Seoul City Council member Park Sang-hyuk. It would be nice if you could let us know one by one with the intention of increasing payments to citizens. The first thing to report is that you came out briefly during the very busy season that we briefly mentioned earlier. We are now talking about the administrative audit of the Office of Education. Please take a look at the first part and explain it in detail.

◇ Sanghyuk Park: The administrative audit has now begun. So, it will last for about two weeks. In the case of the Seoul Metropolitan Board of Education, it is responsible for all kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in Seoul. And those schools are all over Seoul. So it has a fairly wide range. And because we are dealing with issues related to our children, we are now in a situation where we must carefully look at the various policies and budget executions that have been implemented by the Office of Education. There have been many problems in the meantime, but then there was the problem of basic academic ability, then the problem of school violence, and recently there was a controversy about deepfakes.

◆Park Gwi-bin: That’s right.

◇ Sanghyuk Park: There are issues like school lunches, and then there are issues about excessive spending on private education. Also, what has become a problem recently is that due to the introduction of electronic devices, such as schools, now divots, electronic whiteboards, and in this year’s case, digital textbooks are being introduced again. It will now come into effect from next year. We are currently dealing with many such issues.

◆Park Gwi-bin: The 2025 Office of Education budget plan is also scheduled to be reviewed. Which part will you focus on and deliberate on?

◇ Sanghyuk Park: In some ways, the budget structure for education is a bit simple now. If I make good money and earn about 100 million won, I will spend 21 million won a month on education. If I don’t make enough money and can only earn 1 million won, I will spend the 210,000 won on education. Now, the domestic tax revenue has decreased significantly. So, in this year’s case, the main budget for next year is being reduced by about 43%. The amount is about 660 billion won. Due to this decrease in tax revenue, much of the budget passed from the Office of Education to the Seoul City Council has now been raised by the reduction team. As a result, excluding wages and fixed costs, many other policy projects, such as improvement of educational environment and facilities, have been cut, so the task is to select them.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I see.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: Anyway, now that tax revenue has decreased so suddenly, there is a special accounting for budget planning, called a special accounting for Seoul city education expenses. That revenue is not being captured right now. As a result, there are now things like the cigarette tax and other things that are subject to a sunset tax. We are in a situation where we need to work through these things together with the National Assembly.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I understand. The first report was about the administrative audit of the Office of Education. The second was. This is also a big issue in the education world. There is an ordinance recently proposed by the representative regarding reservation integration. This is an ordinance for the promotion of child care education by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. What does it contain?

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: Now, unification of reservations has become a national agenda. The fundamental purpose of the integration of kindergartens is to improve the quality of education and equalize opportunities. To put it simply, it means merging kindergartens and daycare centers. As a result, various problems are bound to arise. Since the systems are different, the fundamental purpose of bringing them together is because of the low birth rate, it is now difficult for us to raise children at home and provide kindergarten education. Fundamentally, it now makes sense to provide some policy support for such things. That’s why this is a national agenda. This system is now in a situation where only the government organization law has been revised, but at least I have now included a plan in the child care education promotion ordinance so that this system, that is, the integration of kindergartens, can be well established. We have now prepared the basis for conducting research and conducting research through this. Based on that, the integration of reservations will now proceed.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Yes, I understand. Above all, I think it is important that the project proceed smoothly without any major disruptions on site.

◇Sanghyuk Park: That’s right. This is now a situation where related organizations such as the Ministry of Education, Seoul City Hall, and the Office of Education are all intertwined. And now, as for the financial issue, once all kindergarten integration has been sorted out and completed according to the roadmap, all work will now be handed over to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Now, how do we organize things like budget and organization, and now kindergarten teachers and childcare teachers are different again. So, there are a lot of tasks to tackle right now, such as training and transportation. This was my first step as a talented person. There will be a grand debate on the 19th of November for the development of unification of reservations.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I see. Yes, I understand.

◇Sanghyuk Park: Many people will participate and we will talk together.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Is there anything you would like to report third? I’ll give it a short time.

◇Sanghyuk Park: I understand. The third thing I would like to say is: There are a lot of pending issues for our children right now, but in any case, our children’s finances have been greatly reduced, so improving school facilities and things like that are big issues. So, despite this, the school has to reduce unnecessary budgets and provide children with a better environment to study. Especially now, there is a problem of overcrowding. Some regions are also seeing a decline in their school-age population.

◆Park Gwi-bin: There are also schools being closed. Even within Seoul…

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: As a result, the situation is now a bit different in each region. So, we and this office of education are thinking a lot about how to harmonize them and trying to come up with a good policy.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I think you’ll hear a lot of stories from the field as well.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: Dear members of the National Assembly, since I became the committee chairman, we have now held meetings with all of our schools through school meetings. Next, at the committee level, there are 11 education support offices in Seoul. It is divided by region, and our committee members are planning to make plans for next year and organize each district and support office so that city council members, parents, teachers, and schools in the region can all participate.

◆Park Gwi-bin: You are also a parent. So, I think that parents will take care of every detail of school education in general more than anyone else.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: I’ve been receiving a lot of reports lately. Now, we are dealing with the Instinct policy and reporting on paper, and also going to the field and talking with the parents and teachers. But the important thing is, as I told you, based on my children’s standards. The answer comes. And to think of it as my child. The perspective changes.

◆Park Gwi-bin: When we meet members of the Seoul City Council, this is the last question I ask them. Seoul Metropolitan Assemblyman Park Sang-hyuk’s legislative icon is ○○○. I would like to ask you to fill in ○○○. How would you fill it in?

◇Sanghyuk Park: These are our children.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Are there 100 left today? Please explain.

◇ Sanghyuk Park: As I said before, education is for our children. These children must lead our future. Rather than keep adding various political and then other things here, let’s do something different now. So, we also spoke with the Superintendent of Education. They say it’s 50 years, 100 years, so it’s a 100-year plan. But let’s do it for real. I told you. So we decided to have a little discussion.

◆Park Gwi-bin: I understand. Seoul City Councilman Park Sang-hyuk’s legislative icon is our children. I will listen to today’s message up to this point. Until now, Seoul City Council member Park Sang-hyuk was the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s education committee. Thank you for coming out during this really busy period.

◇Sanghyuk Park: Yes, thank you.

YTN Lee Eun-ji ([email protected])