Daejeon City Council Member Kim Minsook: "One Private Academy Monopolizes Parent College Prep Academy Project"

"Question Raised Whether Only Parents and Students from Certain Hagwons Are Participating"

Daejeon City Councilor MinSook Kim is making an inquiry on the 7th. / Daejeon City Council

On the 7th, Kim Minsook, a member of the Daejeon City Council's Education Committee (The Minjoo Party of Korea, Proportional Representation), criticized the selection process of the contractor for the Parent University Admissions Academy Project during an administrative audit of the Education Policy Strategy Bureau.

The Parent University Admissions Academy Project has been implemented since 2020 to provide level- and stage-specific career education and counseling for parents of middle and high school students in Daejeon.

According to Councilor Kim, the project initially selected contractors through limited competition, but since 2022, a single admissions academy in Dunsan has monopolized the contract through a single-person estimate, resulting in a contract amount totaling 277 million KRW over three years from 2022 to 2024.

Kim pointed out, "Although there are more than 10 institutions in the region certified by the Daejeon Office of Education as admissions specialists, it is inappropriate to allocate the budget to a specific contractor through a private contract."

She continued, "It is unclear whether measures such as promotional strategies and participant satisfaction surveys, as outlined in the project guidelines, have actually been implemented. The majority of parents in the region are unaware of the project's existence," adding, "I question whether only the parents of students attending a specific academy are participating."

Kim also stated, "There is an issue of redundancy, as the Daejeon Office of Education has already conducted 124 career and admissions training sessions for teachers, students, and parents over the past five years," and suggested, "It would be more desirable to focus the budget on projects that receive positive responses from the target audience, such as the reading support program."

In response, Kim Nakcheol, Director of the Daejeon Education Policy Strategy Bureau, said, "Introducing a competitive system when selecting contractors for this project would be beneficial for promotion and smooth project execution," and added, "We will actively review this matter and determine whether to continue the project next year."