Liberal minister nominee poised to reform education

Education Minister nominee Kim Sang-kon leaves his office set up for preparations for his confirmation hearing on Yeouido in Seoul, June 12. / Korea Times file photo

By Kim Bo-eun

Amid the continuing controversy over the Moon Jae-in administration’s appointment of ministers, attention is being drawn to former liberal educator Kim Sang-kon, nominee for deputy prime minister for social affairs and education minister.

While serving two terms as superintendent of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education from 2009 to 2014, Kim made the local government cover lunch costs at elementary and middle schools and also introduced a students’ rights ordinance that bans teachers from using corporal punishment or from searching students’ bags without their consent.

After finishing his term as superintendent, Kim became the Democratic Party of Korea’s reform committee chief at the time Moon was party chairman in 2015. Kim stayed with the party, serving as co-chairman of Moon’s presidential campaign. He was the architect behind Moon’s education policies.

Kim’s nomination last week drew a mixed response.

“We welcome the nomination of Kim, former Gyeonggi Province superintendent, who pushed for progressive education policies,” the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union said.

However, the conservative Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations expressed concern “Kim’s policies such as free school meals and the students’ rights ordinance were based on populism,” the group said.

“It is difficult to welcome someone, who assumed an important role in a certain party, as the education minister nominee, a position which calls for political neutrality.”

Educational reform

Based on the policies he pushed for as superintendent, expectations are that Kim will continue his drive for state-funded universal education and welfare as well as the “normalization” of public education by reducing reliance on private education and alleviating excessive competition.

One of the Moon administration’s key policies in the education sector is to abolish elite high schools and turn them into regular schools providing free education. This is because foreign language, international and autonomous high schools have become a means for top students to enter prestigious universities, making parents invest in private lessons for their students to gain admission into these schools.

Critics say the elite schools are depleting the pool of high-achieving students at regular schools, lowering the quality of education there.

Another longer-term plan is to integrate state universities as a means to abolish school rankings and academic elitism. Under an integrated system of state universities, the schools will co-recruit and provide graduates with diplomas from the network of schools. Faculty and students will be able to teach and take classes at all of the schools. This is also a means to bring up the quality of education in provincial areas.

Qualification

The National Assembly has yet to hold a confirmation hearing for Kim and approve his appointment. Kim faces allegations including academic plagiarism.

According to the Liberty Korea Party, Kim plagiarized 130 parts of his thesis for his master’s degree and 44 parts for his doctoral thesis. He attained both degrees in business from Seoul National University (SNU).

With regards to the allegations, Kim said an inspection by SNU’s research ethics committee last year found the violations in his doctoral thesis to be minor. As for his master’s thesis, the committee said verifications do not apply for theses published before the fall semester of 2006.

There are also suspicions he hired a close acquaintance at Shin Ansan University as an official while he served as superintendent. The professor had devised Kim’s policies when he ran for the superintendent election.

Reports state the professor did not meet hiring qualifications, so Kim added another qualification which he met.

Kim said he had not ordered his chief secretary to hire a particular person, and claimed the qualification was added under due process.

Suspicions were also raised that Kim raised the official’s pay by more than 10 million won after he was promoted to a higher level the following year.

Regarding the pay raise, Kim said it was made based on the official’s performance.

Moreover, reports said a chief secretary who worked for Kim while he was superintendent allegedly received bribes, which he used for Kim’s expenses.

Kim said he did not know of the allegations and was not involved in receiving bribes.

His confirmation hearing is expected to take place next week.