By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Education policy and reform plans of the Lee Myung-bak administration are focusing on two key words ㅡ autonomy and competition.
Now, these two words are rare commodities in the education sector, which is currently engulfed by a series of corruption scandals, well illustrated by Kong Jeong-taek, the former top educator of Seoul. Kong, a conservative educator, who saw his tenure cut short and is under investigation.
Education Minister Ahn Byong-man and Vice Education Minister Lee Ju-ho were put in charge of leading the reform.
However, the two are on the defensive, with their reform agenda being buried by one scandal after another.
In the wake of recent money-for-promotions in the education sector, the ministry plans to shrink the power of each education office and tightly monitor supervisors as well as school principals. In this regard, the ministry has recently scouted a former prosecutor as an inspector general.
Ahn also announced that the ministry will invite outside experts to screen officials at education offices, while tuning up the entire rotation system among senior education officials.
While these measures are not part of their reform agenda, they are being announced as part of efforts to cope with the corruption scandals.
The introduction of the "autonomous" private high schools is also part of the government's plan to diversify high school education and widen choices for students as well as to boost competition among schools. The ministry plans to select a total of 100 such schools across the country by 2012.
However, those in Seoul are facing trouble as some of them have been involved in admission irregularities. A number of unqualified students were found to have enrolled in the schools through a program only those from low-income families should have been able to apply to.
Regarding this, the top educator said the ministry was not responsible for the cases but parents who abused the "good-willed" program should be blamed.
In its ambitious plan to cut private education costs by half ㅡ a critical social issue ㅡ the ministry has promoted the admissions officer system and started to curb operation hours and tuition at private cram schools.
However, the success of the ministry's efforts is also doubtful. When referring to those preparing to apply to colleges in the U.S., where the admission officer system was initiated, it costs parents and students more money and pain.
Moreover, the system is vulnerable to a variety of admission frauds in Korea where ghostwriters and money-making institutes producing related documents are rampant.
Regarding restrictions on "hagwon," or private cram schools, some education specialists point out that the government doesn't have a consistent policy. They say "education autonomy" of the Lee Administration contradicts with its hagwon policy.
Three steps have been designed for the ministry's reform plan. In the first step, colleges get more flexibility in selecting students. The second step is about changing the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which will be disclosed at the end of this month. Lastly, all schools will have full authority in student selection through an admissions officer system.