Returning to Square One Due to Yoon Administration's Regression
Solving Side Effects Through Diversification of General High Schools?
Irresponsible Remarks Ignoring the Harsh Entrance Exam Competition
Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, stated regarding the government's resolution to amend the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to maintain autonomous private high schools (jasago) and others, "The 10 years of efforts by the educational community to break the hierarchy of high schools and open an 'era of general high schools' to enhance the competitiveness of public education have been instantly nullified."
In a statement on the afternoon of the 17th, Superintendent Cho expressed, "The 10 years of Cho Hee-yeon's Seoul education was a time of striving to overcome the hierarchical high school system through the 'conversion of autonomous private high schools into general high schools,'" and pointed out, "That arduous effort was on the verge of bearing fruit by leading to a policy decision of the previous government, but due to the regression of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, it has returned to square one."
He emphasized, "Moreover, it is deeply heavy-hearted to see Lee Ju-ho, who as Minister of Education 10 years ago significantly expanded autonomous private high schools beyond the few independent private high schools that existed then, now returning as Minister of Education to lead this effort again."
Superintendent Cho pointed out potential problems caused by maintaining autonomous private high schools while reviewing the Deputy Prime Minister's briefing the day before. He said, "The Deputy Prime Minister said, 'If efforts are made to further diversify general high schools, side effects such as the vertical hierarchy of autonomous private high schools or specialized high schools can be reduced.' This is an irresponsible remark that deliberately ignores the harsh reality of our society's brutal entrance exam competition, which has led to the craze for elementary medical school classes and the mass production of repeat exam takers (N-su students)." He added, "I clearly state that changing this dark reality is impossible without horizontally reforming the hierarchical university system and high school system."
Furthermore, Superintendent Cho said, "Vertical hierarchy is not an expansion of diversity but an intensification of competition that causes suffering for our students," and "We must neither forget nor lose the goal and value of transforming the vertically hierarchical high school system into a high school system where 'horizontal diversity' blooms for the future of our students."
He continued, "The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will do its best to open a second era of general high schools through faithful operation of the high school credit system and support for general high schools, as it has done so far to expand horizontal diversity."
Earlier, in June of last year, when the Ministry of Education announced measures to enhance public education competitiveness overturning the abolition of autonomous private high schools, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education expressed concerns that "maintaining autonomous private high schools, combined with the introduction of the high school credit system in 2025 applying absolute evaluation, could stimulate concentration on autonomous private high schools and increase demand for private education for high school entrance exams."
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