[Interview] "I envy my personal taxi friends," says open-minded and bold Principal Shim Jaegwang

Post-Corona as Seen by Principal Shim of Inhu Elementary School, Jeonju, Jeonbuk

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Geon-ju] I met Shim Jae-gwang, principal of Inhu Elementary School, who is called the open-minded daredevil of the education sector. Since he has to leave the teaching profession in four years, he is working even harder, so I met Principal Shim and listened to his educational philosophy.

Principal Shim, who said, "I envy the friend who has no retirement age, who has interior design skills and drives a personal taxi," criticized the current educational reality by saying, "Education should not lead everyone to become judges or prosecutors."

He said that it is not a healthy society where everyone becomes a public official or a teacher.

The world is not a place where everyone can become whatever they want. To become a healthy society, one must receive a general education up to about middle school and then decide what to do with their life.

Principal Shim emphasized, "Students should quickly realize that the world does not bend to force, and they should challenge what they want to do, and schools should provide appropriate education according to students' aptitudes." This is his simple yet clear educational theory.

In February, when the spread of the 'COVID-19' infection caused severe fear among people, a confirmed case was reported at a restaurant near Inhu Elementary School.

The movement paths of the confirmed case and the families of Inhu Elementary students overlapped, and the school was on high alert at that time.

At that time, even the smallest decision required the principal's choice.

In the early days of 'COVID-19,' the focus was on people who had traveled to China because the infection originated in Wuhan.

However, Principal Shim thought a broader investigation was necessary, including travelers from Taiwan and Singapore, not just China.

He paid attention to and monitored the overseas travel history of school staff, including teachers.

Although social challenges related to 'COVID-19' are still ongoing, looking back, Principal Shim recalled those moments as more thrilling and tense.

Principal Shim, who considers himself "daring," said about the post-COVID era, "As experts say, the world will not suddenly change with a 'bang' one day."

He said, "Experiencing the COVID world will not drastically change things," but predicted, "The monopoly and effectiveness of public education will significantly decline due to the experience of the COVID world."

After COVID, the education sector naturally moved away from face-to-face methods to online learning. People agreed that education is not the exclusive domain of schools, and they came to recognize that learning is possible not only in the public sphere but also in the private sphere.

Principal Shim said, "The education sector and parents experienced through COVID that tool subjects can be learned online," and added, "Because of this, schools and parents will not find it strange to have classes three days a week at home and two days at school."

Only kindergarteners or lower-grade students cannot do online learning; relatively young students have no choice but to rely on public education. For other students, it became an opportunity to break away from the mindset that classroom education is the 'whole' of learning.

Principal Shim diagnosed, "People feel anxiety and success while seeing a world they have never experienced before," and "The anxiety of various social members is real," and "Teachers' anxiety is also not absent."

He advised that competition in teacher recruitment will intensify, and for public education to secure efficiency, recruitment by function must become a reality.

He asserted, "In a society, people are more important than systems, and if people do not change, changing the system is useless."

He cautiously predicted the post-COVID era as "a time of securing more autonomy, but the rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer phenomenon will deepen," and "The era of transformation and time for reform will require much more time ahead."