'Jeong Geunsik' Selected as Unified Progressive Candidate for Seoul Superintendent of Education... To Face Conservative Jo Jeonhyuk (Update)

On the 16th of next month, Jeong Geun-sik, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University, was endorsed as the unified progressive candidate for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education by-election.

The '2024 Seoul Democratic Progressive Superintendent Promotion Committee' (Promotion Committee), a body promoting unification within the progressive camp, held a press conference on the afternoon of the 25th at Gaon Stage in Mapo-gu, Seoul, announcing that Professor Jeong was finally endorsed as the unified candidate.

Candidate Jeong ranked first in the combined results of the Promotion Committee’s 1st and 2nd primary votes by committee members (held from the 21st to 22nd) and a general public opinion poll (held from the 24th to 25th), each weighted equally at 50:50.

Jeong Geun-sik, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University. [Photo by Candidate's side]

In the 2nd round, Candidate Jeong competed alongside former Vice Chairman of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union Kang Shin-man and former principal of Oryu Middle School Hong Je-nam, who had passed the 1st primary.

Former Vice Chairman Kang, former Principal Hong, former Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Kwak No-hyun, and former Seoul Metropolitan Education Commissioner Ahn Seung-moon, all of whom participated in the unification primary, gathered on this day and agreed to form an alliance.

Candidate Jeong, a graduate of the Department of Sociology at Seoul National University, has served as a director of the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, head of the research institute at the Memorial Foundation for the Democratization Movement, a member of the Committee for the Investigation of Pro-Japanese and Anti-National Acts, and chairman of the 2nd Past Affairs Committee for Truth and Reconciliation.

Jeong proposed key policy directions including guaranteeing basic academic skills, resolving educational disparities, strengthening history education, and expanding future creative education and democratic citizenship education. As his 'No. 1 pledge,' he announced plans to create a new governance body called the 'Seoul Education Plus Committee,' which would involve students, teachers, parents, and the local community participating together at the regional education office level.

Meanwhile, on the same day, former Grand National Party lawmaker Jo Jeon-hyeok was selected as the unified conservative candidate for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education superintendent election.