Im Tae-hee, Superintendent of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, is discussing the integration and separation of education support offices.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education has expressed its welcome for the Ministry of Education's plan to delegate the authority to establish, abolish, integrate, and separate education support offices to the Superintendent of Education.
The Ministry of Education previously established the legal basis for setting up dedicated school support organizations and allowed specific operational matters to be determined by ordinances. Additionally, it changed the regulation of the jurisdiction, name, and location of education support offices from presidential decrees to ordinances of cities and provinces, thereby delegating organizational authority of education support offices to local governments.
The Provincial Office of Education welcomed the Ministry of Education's plan for 'Institutional Improvement to Strengthen School Field Support by Education Support Offices' and urged the prompt passage of the recently proposed amendment to the Education Autonomy Act within this year.
The Provincial Office of Education hopes that the amendment to the Education Autonomy Act will be passed within the year, establishing the basis for the separation and establishment of integrated education support offices, with the principle of one education support office per city or county.
Currently, in Gyeonggi-do, there are six integrated education support offices each overseeing two cities: Hwaseong-Osan, Gwangju-Hanam, Guri-Namyangju, Dongducheon-Yangju, Gunpo-Uiwang, and Anyang-Gwacheon. This accounts for 67% at the provincial level.
Most of these integrated education support offices have seen a rapid increase in population and student numbers due to new town developments, leading to growing resident demands for the separation of education support offices.
The Provincial Office of Education plans to proceed with follow-up procedures to separate these offices and provide equitable educational administrative services without regional disparities, based on cooperation with local governments.
Earlier, in a press briefing with reporters in June, Superintendent Lim Tae-hee of Gyeonggi Education emphasized, "If integrated education support offices are separated, it will serve as a foundation to provide high-quality educational administrative services tailored to regional characteristics and respond flexibly and promptly to new educational administrative demands."
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