Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
Seoul's education policy may be adrift
Schools confused over ruling against superintendent
By Lee Kyung-min
Cho Hee-yeon
By Lee Kyung-min
Schools and students in Seoul are facing a crisis yet again after a district court Thursday found Seoul’s liberal-minded education chief Cho Hee-yeon guilty of violating the Election Law during his campaign last year.
The Seoul Central District Court ordered him to pay a fine of 5 million won ($4,600) for disseminating false information to voters about his rival candidate Koh Seung-duk during the election campaign.
Cho has vowed to appeal, but if an appeals court fines him more than 100 million won, and the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, Cho will be stripped of his post as superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE).
Out of four elected superintendents of Seoul since 2008, Cho is the third to be tried while in office on charges of Election Law violation after Gong Jeong-taek and Kwak No-hyun, both of whom were stripped of their positions after being convicted.
Cho’s predecessor, Moon Yong-lin, was also put on trial on similar charges after he stepped down.
With top education officials more involved in legal battles than with major education issues, students and parents in Seoul have been victims of inconsistent educational policies.
Cho’s initiative to strengthen public education is likely to lose steam following Thursday’s ruling.
One side effect could be the Supreme Court case involving the Ministry of Education and the SMOE over its move last year to make six of the 25 “autonomous” high schools into ordinary schools by 2016.
Cho had strongly pushed for the creation of “innovative high schools.”
Unlike the autonomous school system under which schools are allowed to select competitive students with good grades, Cho said his alternative would strengthen public education with curricula focusing on better relationships between students and teachers.
Cho had pushed to increase the number of the so-called innovative schools to 100 by end of this year from the current 44.
Cho was indicted for falsely accusing Koh of having a U.S. green card.
Cho charged at the time that Koh’s campaign pledge to strengthen public education was “hypocritical” because he had his own children educated in the United States.
Koh refuted these claims, saying his children obtained citizenship because they were born in the U.S. and he did not have a U.S. green card.
If the Supreme Court upholds the conviction, he will be relieved from his post and will have to return 3 billion won in campaign funds which he received from the National Election Commission after winning the election.
In response to the ruling, the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers' Union (KTU) issued a statement in defense of Cho.
“Cho making those allegations was part of election strategy that said information on candidates seeking public posts should be made public. The ruling was too harsh on Cho,” a KTU official said.
In response the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA), the country's largest teachers' group, said the voting system itself should be reviewed.
“The fact that all four superintendents have faced trial points to a larger issue. Them being elected through a direct voting system has proven problematic here,” a KFTA official said.
Already, last year, the conservative teachers’ group filed a petition with the Constitutional Court asking it to rule on whether it is constitutional to elect superintendents through direct voting.