Cho Hee-yeon "Maintaining Autonomous Private High Schools Contradicts Measures to Reduce Private Education"

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, expressed concerns that the Ministry of Education's policy to maintain autonomous private high schools (Jasago), foreign language high schools, and international high schools could rather weaken public education.

In a statement on the 22nd, Superintendent Cho said, "I express concern over the Ministry of Education's announcement aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of public education," and pointed out, "The maintenance of Jasago schools, combined with the introduction of the high school credit system in 2025, which applies absolute evaluation, may further stimulate the concentration of students in these schools and increase demand for private education related to high school entrance exams."

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, is delivering a greeting at the 'Drug Response Business Agreement Ceremony for a Healthy Drug-Free City Seoul' held at Seoul City Hall on the 19th. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso67@

He continued, "According to last year's private education expenditure survey by the Ministry of Education and Statistics Korea, the average monthly private education cost for middle school students hoping to enter Jasago schools was 1.7 times higher than that of students aiming for general high schools," adding, "With the introduction of the high school credit system and the application of absolute evaluation expected to reduce the advantages or disadvantages of school-specific internal grades, private education for entering Jasago schools may further expand."

Superintendent Cho stated, "The decision to maintain Jasago schools under the pretext of diversification contradicts the current government's measures to reduce private education," and warned, "There is a concern that the competitiveness of public education could rather be weakened due to the devastation of general high schools caused by high school stratification."

Furthermore, regarding the Ministry of Education's announcement to expand the target of customized academic achievement self-evaluation and provide related evaluation information, Superintendent Cho emphasized, "There are concerns about side effects such as school ranking and stigmatization, so sufficient consultation with the metropolitan and provincial offices of education is necessary in the future regarding the method and content of result sharing."

Superintendent Cho added, "If information such as achievement rates by grade, subject, and area of the respective schools, or the achievement rates of specific students compared to the average achievement rate of all students is provided, there is a high possibility that various side effects caused by the full implementation of the past nationwide standardized tests will be repeated," and said, "Measures should be re-discussed together with metropolitan and provincial offices of education and school sites even at this point."