By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff reporter
Three-quarters of voters remain undecided as to whom to vote for in the election of superintendents and education board members, which will take place as part of the June 2 local polls, the latest surveys suggest.
Observers say this poses great concern as the elected members will have authority over the employment of some 400,000 teaching staff nationwide and an annual education budget of more than 40 trillion won ($33 billion).
New education superintendents will wield power in guiding and reshaping the public education system, while board members will play the role of checking the power of the new heads.
A total of 16 education superintendents and 82 board members will be picked in the forthcoming local polls. The competition rate is 5.1 to 1 for superintendents and 3 to 1 for board members.
As to the election of a regional education board member, 81.8 percent of survey respondents replied that they were unaware of candidates running for such a seat.
Only 2.5 percent answered that they were fully aware of the candidates in their constituency, while 20.4 percent said they knew the contestants only to a certain extent, according to the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) from May 21 to 22.
Asked about the election of superintendents, 75.8 percent answered that they were ignorant of candidates, 3.8 percent replied that they were fully informed of the contenders, while 20.4 percent said they knew them to a limited degree, the poll said.
A joint survey carried out by the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, and Media Research on May 24 also found that more than 7 out of 10 people failed to recognize education board candidates.
The poll found that people were ignorant of contestants irrespective of academic background, vocation, and age group.
As for superintendent candidates, 76.9 percent with a college degree, 75 percent of white-collar workers and 75.7 people in their 40s answered that they were ill-informed of the contenders.
Mothers are known to have stronger interest in their children' education, but 76.2 percent of them also knew little about both candidates and their campaign promises.
Some political watchers fear that the elections of top education officials will turn into a "lottery pick," as the majority of voters are expected to select candidates in a random manner.
They say candidate numbers 1 and 2 will likely have a higher chance of winning the elections than those most competent for the job who have a better vision for the public education system.
The selection of candidates will be more challenging to many voters as the races for the nation's top education seats are non-partisan and party affiliation is banned.
The direct election of education board members will be scrapped from the 2014 local elections, according to the National Election Commission.