Education Superintendent Lee Jae-jung "Actively Considering the Payment of the 2nd Education Disaster Relief Fund"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-jeong, Superintendent of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, stated that he would "actively consider" the proposal by the Democratic Party of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council to provide a second round of educational disaster relief funds to all students.

In a statement released on the 30th of last month, Superintendent Lee evaluated, "The prolonged COVID-19 situation has made the education sector very difficult, so the council's policy proposal is very meaningful."

Earlier, on the 29th of last month, the Democratic Party of the Provincial Council proposed to the Gyeonggi Office of Education to use the third supplementary budget to provide 50,000 KRW per student as the '2nd Educational Disaster Relief Fund' to all students in the province, including kindergarteners, and to provide 5 million KRW in cash per private kindergarten as the '2nd Educational Stabilization Support Fund.'

According to the Provincial Council, the recipients of the 2nd Educational Disaster Relief Fund include approximately 1.66 million students enrolled in public and private kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools, special schools, and authorized alternative schools within the province. The related budget is estimated at 83.3 billion KRW. There are 884 private kindergartens, requiring a budget of 4.4 billion KRW.

Superintendent Lee emphasized, "I think the 2nd Educational Disaster Relief Fund can provide some support to parents. Kindergartens are also facing operational difficulties as many parents decide to withdraw their children due to COVID-19, so it is important that such reasons do not cause deficiencies in early childhood education activities."

Previously, since the 15th of last month, the Gyeonggi Office of Education has been providing the 1st Educational Disaster Relief Fund (Education Recovery Support Fund) of 50,000 KRW per student to all students in the province, including kindergarteners.

Additionally, 11.7 billion KRW was provided as the 1st Educational Stabilization Support Fund to private kindergartens for teachers' salaries and cafeteria environment improvement projects.

Meanwhile, the third supplementary budget bill submitted by the Gyeonggi Office of Education will undergo review by the Provincial Council's Budget and Accounts Committee by the 10th of this month and will be finalized at the plenary session on the 13th.