Gwangdongwan Gwangju Superintendent Candidate: "Policy Competition, Not Power Struggle, Should Prevail"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Kang Dong-wan, a preliminary candidate for Gwangju Superintendent of Education, emphasized on the 14th that “the election atmosphere is deteriorating into a battleground between political forces” and “the superintendent of education should be chosen as a figure who can create creative hope, not merely a politician.”

He stated that the superintendent election differs from general political elections in that “the educational value of creativity must take precedence over political ideology,” and this is “the reason why the superintendent election should be differentiated from other local elections.”

In particular, he criticized that “superintendent candidates are trying to recruit people with political experience and align with strong candidates such as mayors and district heads to win,” and that “education is relying on factional political and ideological powers without creativity and autonomous independence.” He also mentioned, “We need to consider why superintendent candidates do not receive party nominations.”

Furthermore, he pointed out that “people who have worked in various election camps or have diverse political activity backgrounds are already participating in the superintendent election nationwide,” and “candidates from the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (Jeon-gyo-jo) are seeking unification with progressive civic groups, while candidates who have already been involved in established politics are brilliantly demonstrating their political skills and techniques.”

He added, “Just as the hippie spirit of San Francisco created computers and the internet, contributing to knowledge equality, and through the moon landing on July 21, 1969, created humanity’s hope toward space, Gwangju’s educational spirit must also challenge itself to become a future education model that Korea and the world can learn from.” He continued, “We must create a new model of Gwangju education based on creativity to lead youth in realizing their dreams and open a pragmatic world where the people can take pride in their lives.”

Kang further emphasized, “Political power should refrain from excessive interference in the superintendent election, and the current election atmosphere must change.”

He also stated, “The future superintendent must play a role in creating Gwangju’s creative hope through nurturing talent led by artificial intelligence, and political logic must be completely excluded,” adding, “For that, the superintendent’s thoughts and actions must be ‘creativity’ itself.”