Submission of Next Year's Budget Proposal to Seoul Metropolitan Council
13.4% Decrease Compared to This Year's Original Budget
3.3 Trillion KRW Allocated for Fiscal Stabilization Fund Revenue
School Operating Expenses Increased by 5.8%
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has prepared next year’s budget plan with a reduced scale compared to this year. The budget allocates funds necessary for key projects such as protecting teachers’ educational activities and introducing AI (artificial intelligence) digital textbooks.
Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, submitted the budget plan for next year to the Seoul Metropolitan Council on the 1st. The size of the next year’s main budget is 11.1605 trillion KRW, a 13.4% (1.731 trillion KRW) decrease compared to this year’s main budget. The core investment areas include ▲ Protection and support of educational activities (8.3 billion KRW) ▲ Establishment of future education infrastructure (388.4 billion KRW) ▲ Strengthening basic academic skills (31 billion KRW) ▲ Creation of a safe school environment (704.5 billion KRW).
In particular, major projects for protecting and supporting educational activities include assigning dedicated legal counsel for teachers in 11 education support offices (930 million KRW), operating education support office teacher rights protection committees (600 million KRW), introducing a one-school-one-lawyer system (3.36 billion KRW), and establishing a recordable phone system (1.3 billion KRW). Additionally, funds were allocated for expanding and operating behavior intervention specialists (470 million KRW), operating Seoul Positive Behavior Support (Seoul PBS) (510 million KRW), personnel expenses of 170 million KRW for counseling staff at oversized elementary schools without professional counselors, and expanding the scope of teacher safety insurance and teacher safety mutual aid fees (1 billion KRW).
A budget was also prepared in anticipation of the full introduction of AI digital textbooks in 2025. Major projects include digital textbook development and operation costs (1.7 billion KRW), student smart device distribution “Dibut” (297.7 billion KRW), student smart device charging stations distribution (21.8 billion KRW), electronic whiteboards (41.6 billion KRW), smart device quality assurance costs (11.2 billion KRW), digital tutor service fees (1.3 billion KRW), and the establishment of a school informatization support network diagnosis and work automation system (13.1 billion KRW).
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education stated that, amid this year’s revenue shortfall and the reduction of next year’s education finances, it has allocated 330 billion KRW from the Integrated Education Finance Stabilization Fund as revenue to promote educational projects. It also explained that school operation expenses were increased by 5.8% (55 billion KRW) from this year to 997 billion KRW to support student-tailored educational activities and respond to public utility charges and inflation.
The 2024 budget plan of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is expected to be finalized after review by the regular session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
