Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Plans 10.8 Trillion Won Budget for Next Year... Facility Costs Reduced by 46%

"Selection and Focus, Bold Business Restructuring"
3.1% Reduction from This Year's Budget
School Facility Budget of 474.2 Billion KRW
Allocation for Key Projects Including Basic Academic Skills Guarantee

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has prepared a budget of 10.8102 trillion KRW for next year. This represents a 3.1% decrease compared to this year’s budget, reflecting efforts to improve spending efficiency in line with the government’s fiscal tightening policy. In particular, the budget for facility projects was cut by about half compared to this year.

Funds were allocated not only for the Neulbom School and AI (Artificial Intelligence) digital textbooks promoted by the Ministry of Education but also for policies pushed by Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, such as guaranteeing basic academic skills and supporting special education.

On the 1st, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced in a press release that it had submitted the first draft of the next year’s main budget to the Seoul Metropolitan Council. It added, "This budget was prepared by boldly reducing and reorganizing projects with high unused funds and event-based projects through selection and concentration amid unstable educational financial conditions. Small-scale earmarked project funds within school accounting transfers were reorganized and partially included in school operating expenses."

It also explained that the school’s general operating expenses were increased by 3.3% (23.3 billion KRW) compared to this year.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, the government announced in the "Fiscal Response Plan According to the 2024 Tax Revenue Re-estimation" that the local education finance grants for this year would be reduced from the originally budgeted 68.9 trillion KRW to about 64.6 trillion KRW, a decrease of approximately 4.3 trillion KRW. To reduce the budget, the enforcement decree was also revised to promote spending efficiency targeting metropolitan and provincial offices of education. Accordingly, each education office is interpreted to have cut their budgets for next year.

In particular, the budget for facility projects related to school facility improvements was set at 474.196 billion KRW, down 45.9% (402.881 billion KRW) from this year. This year’s facility project budget was 877.077 billion KRW.

Among these, the general facility budget was allocated at 380.71 billion KRW, a 49% reduction from this year’s 747.19 billion KRW. The budget for meal service facilities also decreased by 66.8% (57.184 billion KRW) from 85.646 billion KRW this year to 28.462 billion KRW. The budget for new and expanded school facilities increased by 46.7% (20.72 billion KRW) compared to this year.

[Source: Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education]

Budgets were also allocated to major projects promoted since Superintendent Jeong took office. First, to guarantee basic academic skills and overcome educational gaps, the plan includes establishing the "Seoul Learning Diagnosis and Healing Center (tentative name)" to support the learning of students with disabilities and multicultural backgrounds. Superintendent Jeong announced plans to pilot the center by region starting next year and fully expand it to all 25 autonomous districts by 2027.

84 billion KRW will be invested in supporting the improvement of basic academic skills in elementary schools, and 37 billion KRW in middle schools. 3.9 billion KRW is allocated for educational recovery support. 3.8 billion KRW and 27.7 billion KRW will be invested respectively in support for multicultural students and special education-related and after-school activities.

Additionally, the budget related to the nationwide Neulbom School initiative promoted by the government includes 24.2 billion KRW for program operation costs, 10.8 billion KRW for Neulbom environment construction, and 49.8 billion KRW for operation and snack costs. For the AI digital textbooks to be introduced sequentially from next year, 25.6 billion KRW is allocated, along with 147.2 billion KRW for purchasing smart devices and 9.7 billion KRW for establishing and maintaining school wireless networks.

Budgets are also allocated for handling issues such as sexual crimes, school violence, and infringement of teachers’ rights. 3.6 billion KRW is allocated for school violence prevention measures, and 2.7 billion KRW for educational activity protection support.

Furthermore, budgets were assigned for forming educational governance in education support offices. 1 billion KRW will be invested in customized parent education and visiting parent training, and 500 million KRW in operating educational community public forums.

Meanwhile, revenue budgets were prepared as follows: 6.5987 trillion KRW from central government transfers, 4.0396 trillion KRW from local government transfers, 13.2 billion KRW from other transfers, 135.9 billion KRW from self-generated income, 13.5 billion KRW carried over from the previous year, and 9.3 billion KRW from financial asset recovery, totaling 10.8102 trillion KRW.

Expenditure budgets include: 7.2744 trillion KRW for personnel expenses, 1.0119 trillion KRW for school and institution operating expenses, 2.0339 trillion KRW for educational projects, 474.2 billion KRW for facility projects, 700 million KRW for financial activities (temporary loan management and BTL repayment), and 15.1 billion KRW for contingency funds, totaling 10.8102 trillion KRW.