Seoul City-Council Clash, Oh Se-hoon Cuts 'Seoul Run' Supplementary Budget

"Just simple video lecture provision," "Private online academy education does not help reduce academic disparity," consecutive criticisms from City Council's Administrative Committee
Also pointed out overlap with existing education platforms

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Administrative Autonomy Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council has fully cut the budget for the Seoul-type education platform 'Seoul Run' construction project and the customized online content support project without academic achievement gaps, which were included in this year's first supplementary budget submitted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The committee judged that the budget allocation was inappropriate due to insufficient preliminary preparations for the project.

According to the city council on the 23rd, the Administrative Autonomy Committee cut the entire budget allocated to the 'Seoul Run' construction project and others, which Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon added to the supplementary budget to fulfill his campaign promises. Previously, Seoul had allocated 1.835 billion KRW for the 'Seoul Run' project to build an education platform providing education regardless of income level, and 4 billion KRW for a new project supporting customized online content without academic achievement gaps, aimed at providing educational platforms and content for low-income youth.

Seoul stated that these two projects aim to eliminate academic achievement gaps by delivering online education by curriculum to youths from households with median income below 50%, but the city council's Administrative Autonomy Committee concluded that the preparations were insufficient.

The committee explained, "Through in-depth budget review regarding the project's purpose, necessity, appropriateness of budget scale, efficiency of implementation methods, effectiveness, and feasibility of achieving project goals, it was judged that preparations for the project were insufficient, leading to the decision to cut the project budget."

Within the committee, there were criticisms that the project was merely providing 'video lecture courses' and did not properly reflect the project's purpose and intent of 'providing AI-based educational programs' in the project content. Additionally, contrary to Seoul's explanation, it was pointed out that simply offering private online academy education neither helps to eliminate academic achievement gaps nor contributes to the normalization of public education.

Since education and cultural affairs are under the jurisdiction of the education office according to current laws, opinions were raised that future consultations with the education office are necessary to determine whether it is appropriate for Seoul to directly implement the project to eliminate educational disparities. The committee emphasized, "Although the project is scheduled to start in August, there is no plan yet to recruit mentors for mentoring," and "There is also no plan for system development, giving the impression that the project is being pushed forward based solely on enthusiasm."

In particular, concerns were raised about potential functional overlap with the existing 'Seoul Lifelong Education Portal' operated by the city, and whether a system allowing access to a limited number of lectures from private online academies is more efficient than providing educational vouchers.

The committee stated, "There were opinions that at least a budget sufficient to carry out the project should be allocated," but added, "The committee decided to cut the project budget with the view that education-related projects require very careful and active cooperation between Seoul and the education office, and that sufficient time is needed to prepare for the project."