Free high school education hangs in the balance due to financial burden
The government initially planned to provide high school students with long-awaited free education starting in the second semester of 2020. But it has decided to advance the plan by one year, raising speculation that the decision might be aimed at winning votes in the general elections slated for April next year.
Students and their parents have no reason to oppose the early implementation. Yet the problem is that Education Minister Yoo Eun-hye announced the decision hastily when she took office last October without any budgetary plan on free schooling.
Regrettably, Yoo has passed the financial burden on to local education offices across the nation. Thus the ministry has no plans to allocate any state budget for the free education plan.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance, which is in charge of budgeting, also maintains that the education offices in eight major cities and nine provinces do not need an additional state budget because they receive enough financial grants for local education.
In protest of the Moon Jae-in government's policy, superintendents of the 17 local education offices issued a joint statement last week that the state should provide the budget for free high school education. Ironically, 15 of the 17 chief educators confronting the liberal administration are progressives, except for two in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.
The Moon government appears to be responsible for the feud with the education offices in that it has made the impromptu decision with no reasonable explanation. This explains why some critics are criticizing the administration for taking the populist policy in an apparent bid to woo voters ahead of the elections.
Free high school education will need an estimated 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) a year. This is not a one-time budget. It is an annual requirement. It is difficult to understand why the education ministry is dealing with such an important education policy so poorly with no budgetary plan.
Any education policy, which should be pushed on a long-term basis, should not be abused for election tactics. If the government cannot set aside an extra budget for free high school education this year, it would be better to put it off by a year.
The government initially planned to provide high school students with long-awaited free education starting in the second semester of 2020. But it has decided to advance the plan by one year, raising speculation that the decision might be aimed at winning votes in the general elections slated for April next year.
Students and their parents have no reason to oppose the early implementation. Yet the problem is that Education Minister Yoo Eun-hye announced the decision hastily when she took office last October without any budgetary plan on free schooling.
Regrettably, Yoo has passed the financial burden on to local education offices across the nation. Thus the ministry has no plans to allocate any state budget for the free education plan.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance, which is in charge of budgeting, also maintains that the education offices in eight major cities and nine provinces do not need an additional state budget because they receive enough financial grants for local education.
In protest of the Moon Jae-in government's policy, superintendents of the 17 local education offices issued a joint statement last week that the state should provide the budget for free high school education. Ironically, 15 of the 17 chief educators confronting the liberal administration are progressives, except for two in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.
The Moon government appears to be responsible for the feud with the education offices in that it has made the impromptu decision with no reasonable explanation. This explains why some critics are criticizing the administration for taking the populist policy in an apparent bid to woo voters ahead of the elections.
Free high school education will need an estimated 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) a year. This is not a one-time budget. It is an annual requirement. It is difficult to understand why the education ministry is dealing with such an important education policy so poorly with no budgetary plan.
Any education policy, which should be pushed on a long-term basis, should not be abused for election tactics. If the government cannot set aside an extra budget for free high school education this year, it would be better to put it off by a year.
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