Reporter's Notebook Moon gets 'F' in education policy

Moon Jae-in, then-presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Kim Sang-gon, the incumbent education minister, speak to parents about his education policy at Daeyeong Elementary School in March 2017. Korea Times file

By Kim Hyun-bin

Most of the education policies the Moon Jae-in administration has introduced over the past year have been a failure by all accounts.

Marking the first-year anniversary of President Moon Jae-in's tenure, Gallup Korea recently released a survey rating Moon and his key government branches. Unsurprisingly, the Ministry of Education ranked at the bottom among all departments with an approval rating of only 30 percent.

Just the number alone speaks volumes. But to make matters worse, the low number comes even as Moon's approval rating stands at 74.5 percent, according to a Realmeter survey released Friday.

Policies confuse public

People have been left in confusion during the year as few educational policies were carefully thought out, and those who implemented them didn't take the time to gather public opinion.

Soon after the education ministry announced new policies, such as college admissions reform and banning afterschool English classes in daycare centers, the plans faced a strong public backlash. This opposition led the ministry to postpone the moves. Since then, the ministry has tried to avoid making decisions on major issues.

In the case of college admissions reform, the education ministry tossed it to the Presidential Committee on National Education for further review.

“The problem is the ministry is avoiding making policy decisions,” Rep. Lee Dong-sup of the Bareun Mirae Party said. “The education ministry recently announced it will choose its final college admissions policy through public opinion. This shows a lack of policy enforcement, conviction and philosophy of the ministry. We need to restructure the MOE in the education committee to quickly reduce the commotion.”

Wider inequality gap

As a candidate, Moon vowed to reduce inequality in education. But many experts say his policies might create an even wider gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

Moon's administration banned all afterschool English classes in daycare centers up to the second grade.

The ministry claims it is ineffective to teach a second language below the third grade and claimed that it causes excessive stress on the children.

This goes against decades of domestic and international research, which shows starting a second language early is better for children so they can comprehend the language.

However, the problem is that the gap between rich and poor will inevitably become wider. Most affluent households will seek more private education to bypass for the ban. On the other hand, families struggling to stay afloat will be further left behind.