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| Cho Hee-yeon, incumbent education superintendent, pays tribute to fallen heroes at the Seoul National Cemetery Thursday, after being re-elected for his second term. Yonhap |
Cho Hee-yeon, the re-elected Seoul Superintendent of Education, announced specific plans to implement key policies during a press conference at Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Thursday.
"Using the past four years of administrative experience, I will introduce more daring and innovative policies so that all students, parents, and teachers feel innovative education becoming a reality firsthand," Cho said.
The incumbent had a landslide victory raking in 46.6 percent over his two opponents, moderate Cho Young-dal and conservative Park Sun-young.
Park was second with 36.2 percent of the vote, while Cho Young-dal gained 17.3 percent during local elections Wednesday.
Cho vowed to expand free meal plans to private elementary and high schools in the capital
Under his new plan, high school freshmen will start receiving free meals starting next year and he plans to add in an additional grade each year.
By 2022, Cho aims to provide free meals to all high schools and private elementary school students in the capital.
To enforce the plan, a budget of 77.5 billion won ($70 million) will be needed next year, 166 billion in 2020, 252 billion in 2021, 272.6 billion won in 2022. Cho plans to raise half the budget from the Seoul education office and the other half from the Seoul city government and autonomous districts within the capital.
He reaffirmed one of his key pledges to abolish autonomous private and foreign language high schools and transform them into public schools.
"Next year there is an evaluation of private and foreign high schools, which is held every five years. If the schools don't meet the standard we will change them into a public school," said Cho. "We will closely cooperate with the education ministry to make a strictly fair evaluation."
Cho has been trying to eliminate the institutions since he was elected for his first term in 2014.
He vowed to implement a lottery system for private high school admissions and provide support for schools that are going through the transition from private to public.
Cho emphasized that all private and foreign high schools need to be switched public schools to reduce high school rankings. However, to change the schools the education enforcement ordinance needs to be removed, which can only be overturned by the central government and the National Assembly.
Luckily, the move is in line with the Moon Jae-in administration's efforts to abolish the institutions, leaving a greater possibility the government might remove the ordinance.
The superintendent plans to increase the number of innovative schools and plans to give more authority to district offices and institutions.
"More authority will be passed down from the education ministry to the Seoul education office, to district education office and to schools," he said. "I am hopeful a self regulation era will open for teachers, students and parents."
Cho was born in 1956 in Jeong-eup in North Jeolla Province and obtained his master's and doctorate degrees from Yonsei University. He helped establish Sungkonghoe University and worked as a social science professor for several years.
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