Civic Group Criticizes Gwangju Office of Education's Integration Reform as Lacking Procedure and Expertise

Criticism Over Exclusion of Professionals
and Lack of Dedicated Organization

The civic group "Citizens' Coalition for a Society Without Academic Cliques" issued a statement on June 4, strongly criticizing the Gwangju Office of Education's reorganization for integrating early childhood education and care, calling it "a hasty administrative move lacking procedural legitimacy and expertise."

Gwangju Office of Education

The integration policy aims to merge kindergartens and daycare centers to enhance public responsibility and professionalism, as part of a government initiative. Offices of education in cities and provinces nationwide have established dedicated teams to implement this policy. However, the Gwangju Office of Education has been handling the matter within its existing Early Childhood and Elementary Education Division, without a dedicated team. Separately, it established an Integration Center in March of this year.

The group argued, "Even after establishing the Integration Center, the Gwangju Office of Education has not held an official opening event or conducted external publicity, so those in the field are not even aware of the center's identity," adding, "It is being misunderstood as a simple teacher training institution."

Personnel issues have also come under scrutiny. The group pointed out that both the center director and the team leader are not early childhood education professionals, criticizing this as "appointments that exclude expertise." They further stated, "The explanation that these appointments were made to strengthen ties with daycare centers is merely an after-the-fact justification."

Securing a budget also remains uncertain. The Office of Education applied for a special grant of 3.6 billion won from the Ministry of Education in September last year to open the Integration Center, but the request was not approved. Nevertheless, the office proceeded with the establishment of the organization and personnel appointments, which has been criticized as "undermining procedural legitimacy."

The office's passive response compared to other cities and provinces has also been highlighted as a problem. While other offices of education have created dedicated task forces or separate departments for early childhood education and welfare to independently operate the integration policy, the Gwangju Office of Education has assigned the work to an existing department. This has led to criticism that the office "may be treating the integration policy as a mere administrative task."

The civic group has called on the Office of Education to disclose the purpose and operational plans of the Integration Center, ensure the substantive participation of early childhood education professionals, and secure independence and expertise by establishing a dedicated organization.