[Opinion] The Light and Shadow of Education Policy

All policies have goals they aim to achieve, and the success of a policy is evaluated based on those goals. However, pursuing policy goals can lead to unexpected side effects. If the policy goal is the light, the side effects can be seen as shadows. Just as a bright light casts a deep shadow, the clearer the effect of an education policy, the greater its side effects may be.

During the administration of the Kim Dae-jung government, when it was difficult to obtain approval for establishing universities, the principle of university establishment by notification was introduced, allowing anyone to establish a university if certain criteria were met. The goal was to break down regulations on university establishment to induce competition among universities and improve the quality of education. At that time, economists defined universities as education suppliers and argued that competition should shift from among consumers to among suppliers, insisting that some universities in Korea should close. As a result, it became easier to establish universities, the number of universities rapidly increased, and indeed, some universities closed.

However, the quality of university education did not noticeably improve, and only shadows such as university closures and regional economic collapse appeared. As the school-age population declined, the goal of expanding enrollment under the university establishment by notification principle led to under-enrollment in regional universities. As external competition among universities intensified, universities were forced to raise tuition fees to secure funding. If the external growth of universities was the light of the university establishment by notification principle, then the crisis of regional universities due to enrollment expansion, regional economic collapse caused by university closures, and the heavy tuition burden due to tuition increases were the shadows.

This time, a university structural reform policy for artificial enrollment reduction emerged. To reduce the tuition burden, an unprecedented half-price tuition policy was even implemented. As so-called symptomatic treatments were repeated, universities became devastated. The rosy blueprint of improving quality through competition among university education suppliers was overshadowed as policies wavered. The person who had advocated the university establishment by notification principle even led university structural reform after the regime changed. The quality of university education rather declined, and universities faced serious financial difficulties.

The university establishment by notification principle was strongly influenced by economists, while the half-price tuition policy was the work of politicians. Both policies share the commonality of ignoring the opinions of education experts. Economists and politicians can propose education policies, but it is not easy to carefully predict the side effects of policies. Although it is said that the entire nation is an education expert, it is difficult to objectively view education policies beyond the limitation of one's own child's education. A true education expert is someone who accurately predicts and prepares for the shadows of education policies.

What about the education policies introduced by the Moon Jae-in administration? The goal of abolishing autonomous private high schools and specialized high schools is clear. The visible high school hierarchy will be resolved, but shadows caused by the destruction of diversity will also arise. The expansion of public kindergartens promoted under the name of strengthening educational publicness will turn into the shadow of kindergarten depopulation as the number of children decreases. Some Green Smart Future School projects promoted through the Build-Transfer-Lease (BTL) method inevitably pass the financial burden of education onto future generations.

Introducing public-type private universities may increase the publicness of some private schools, but the shadow of damaging the autonomy and diversity of private schools is also significant. The establishment of the National Education Commission shows the light of consistent education policy formulation but also the shadow of entrenching the dominant forces in education policy. The expansion policy of innovative schools has shadows such as claims of academic decline and discrimination against regular schools, as much as its achievements. The ripple effects are too great to erase the shadow of academic decline with a new concept of academic ability.

Just as shining light from multiple directions can reduce shadows, diversifying education policies is the only way to reduce the shadows of education policies. If you look directly at the light, you cannot see the shadow. Strengthening the publicness of education is not the wrong direction, but education policy does not succeed by publicness alone. It is urgent to see the shadows of education policies and make efforts to minimize trial and error.

Song Ki-chang, Professor, Department of Education, Sookmyung Women's University