“Reply, Kim Younggon” Beginning in Jinju
Preliminary candidate for Superintendent of Education of Gyeongnam Kim Younggon, who has pledged to lay the foundation for normalizing education in Gyeongnam through principled consolidation, is fully launching the “2 Days & 1 Night On-site Responsibility Project” as an implementation strategy after unification.
On the morning of the 25th, Kim Younggon, a preliminary candidate for Superintendent of Education of Gyeongnam and former Assistant Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, visited the briefing room at Jinju City Hall and announced, “By launching the ‘2 Days & 1 Night On-site Responsibility Project,’ I am beginning a course of field-centered, hands-on responsible education.”
Kim Younggon, a pre-candidate for Gyeongnam Superintendent of Education, is holding a press conference at the Jinju City Hall briefing room regarding 1 Night 2 Days.
Preliminary candidate Kim Younggon has so far met directly with parents, teachers, students, and young people under the banners of “Open Ears” and “On Two Feet” to listen to the realities of education in Gyeongnam.
The intention was to listen to education not in meeting rooms, but in markets, classrooms, and everyday spaces.
He said, “With short visits, I felt the limitation that it is difficult to fully understand the depth of the concerns each region carries,” expressing his determination that “from now on, I will stay for a day, listen to education issues within local life, and connect them to policy.”
The “2 Days & 1 Night On-site Responsibility Project” is structured as a process that moves from visits, to close conversations, to immediate review, and then to weekly announcements of policy responses.
Kim has formalized this as the “Reply, Kim Younggon” project, saying, “The principle is that these schedules do not end with visits but return as policies,” and adding, “Responsibility is not a promise but implementation.” His plan is to respond every week with policies to the questions raised in the field.
The first policy response of this project concerns students’ use of mobile phones and social media.
Based on opinions raised during a recent meeting with members of “Urikkiri Misuda,” the largest moms’ online community in western Gyeongnam, Kim proposed a policy experiment for “Schools Without Social Media and Mobile Phones.”
The main components are: operating “Challenge Schools” to restore daily life rhythms; operating “Experimental Schools” to verify policy effectiveness; and spreading the “Clean Schools” model that protects core learning time. This policy will be promoted as an optional model based on the consent of students and parents, rather than as a mandate.
Kim explained, “If we do not change our children’s nights, classrooms will not change,” and added, “We will begin a responsible experiment that does not shift all responsibility onto children and does not leave teachers and families to bear the burden alone.”
He went on to say, “Many policies are announced and then disappear, but I will start from the field, verify in the field, and complete them in the field,” adding, “Education that takes responsibility for a child’s day is not a slogan but a change in structure.”
Finally, Kim added, “I will ensure that ‘2 Days & 1 Night’ and ‘Reply, Kim Younggon,’ which began in Jinju, become the starting point for resetting the direction of education in Gyeongnam.”
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