[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] Jang Seok-woong, Superintendent of Education of Jeonnam, was elected as vice president at the National Association of Superintendents of Education of Cities and Provinces.
According to the Jeonnam Office of Education on the 10th, Superintendent Jang Seok-woong was appointed as vice president along with Superintendent Do Seong-hoon of Incheon and Superintendent Park Jong-hoon of Gyeongnam at the ‘73rd General Assembly of the National Association of Superintendents of Education of Cities and Provinces’ held on the 9th in Buyeo, Chungnam.
The National Association of Superintendents of Education of Cities and Provinces formed a new executive team and also recommended members for the Education Autonomy Policy Council. By passing a proposal to expand and reorganize the secretariat, the association further strengthened its role and status.
The main agenda items of the general assembly included ▲measures to ensure the effectiveness of disciplinary actions in private schools by mandating the hearing of expert opinions on sexual misconduct cases ▲system improvements due to restrictions on background checks for sexual crimes and child abuse crimes ▲legislative amendments to abolish the college entrance exam fee for current high school seniors ▲improvements to the 2021 college entrance and CSAT implementation to ensure fairness for high school seniors (recommendations such as improving evaluation criteria for early admission non-curricular areas and adjusting CSAT difficulty) ▲and a request to postpone the implementation of the 2020 teacher competency development evaluation.
Also, in accordance with the decision of the 71st General Assembly, the ‘Emergency Declaration on School Environmental Education in the Era of Climate Crisis and Environmental Disasters’ was carried out, and the association’s declaration gained additional significance on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ‘Earth Day.’
In particular, the declaration emphasized the responsibility of superintendents of education, who are in charge of educating future generations, to respond to climate change, which threatens not only the current COVID-19 crisis but also the future of the next generation.
The superintendents attending the declaration pledged efforts to guarantee students’ right to environmental learning for a happy future and to secure the health and safety rights of future generations together with local communities. They committed to exploring greenhouse gas reduction measures that can start at schools and education offices and to creating ‘Core Schools of Ecological Civilization’ to present practical models.
Furthermore, to materialize this commitment, they announced the formation of a ‘School Environmental Education Policy Research Group’ and plans to establish legal grounds for revitalizing environmental education, amend the Environmental Education Promotion Act to assign roles to superintendents, and promote detailed projects by region.
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