Busan Office of Education to Significantly Reduce Administrative Tasks for Teachers

The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education has rolled up its sleeves to reduce the total administrative workload of teachers in order to focus school operations on educational activities.

Busan Education Office is expanding the operation of the ‘Busan-type Teacher Workload Reduction Project’ to create a school culture where teachers can concentrate on teaching and student guidance.

This project aims to reduce the increased administrative tasks of teachers caused by changes in educational policies and the diverse roles required of schools. It focuses on strengthening the functions of education support offices centered on school support, minimizing tasks flowing into schools, and improving school work processing methods.

Busan Education Office will be the first nationwide to transfer all after-school program tasks of elementary schools to the education support office. The tasks will be largely transferred to the education support office’s ‘Educational Activity Support Team,’ and a dedicated staff member will be assigned to each school to provide customized after-school program support.

With this task transfer, all elementary schools are expected to see a significant reduction in after-school program-related tasks such as ▲course registration ▲accounting management ▲free course pass management ▲statistics management ▲one-stop civil complaint handling ▲consulting support.

Busan Office of Education.

New initiatives such as ‘Textbook Distribution Personnel Support’ and ‘Teaching Instrument Management Consulting Project,’ discovered by the Teacher Workload Reduction Promotion Team, will be launched, and more than 20 existing educational activity, administrative, and facility support projects will be expanded.

In particular, a new ‘(tentative name) Teacher Workload Reduction Support Team’ will be established to provide direct, on-site support.

This support team is a counseling advisory group that offers professional assistance when teachers face increased workload burdens due to issues such as infringement of teacher rights and parental complaints, which prevent them from focusing on teaching and student guidance.

The team will consist of about 20 experts in areas such as teacher rights protection legal advice, complaint conflict management, and class management. Counseling and advisory services can be requested through the Busan School Support Service (BSSS).

Additionally, a pilot operation of the ‘DoranDoran Visiting Work Support Team’ will be conducted, utilizing retired educators to provide consulting and support on student guidance, teaching, class management, and administrative tasks for new teachers.

School work processing procedures will also be standardized, and based on this, automated work processes will be introduced to establish a foundation for improving the efficiency of school administrative tasks.

First, plans include ▲standardizing forms and procedures related to awards ▲programming the hiring process for contract teachers ▲programming forms for school operation committees ▲digitizing surveys ▲improving the functions of data aggregation and work management systems.

Along with this, a Teacher Workload Reduction Idea Contest will be held, and a Teacher Workload Reduction Suggestion Board will be opened to continuously collect field opinions. Furthermore, projects from each department will be categorized into integration, abolition, improvement, expansion, or new initiatives to reduce unnecessary tasks and focus on strengthening school support.

Ha Yun-su, Superintendent of Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, said, “Reducing teachers’ workload is a long-standing issue not only for our education office but for all education offices,” and added, “We will concentrate all our capabilities to ensure that the ‘Busan-type Teacher Workload Reduction Project’ achieves practical effects in school sites.”