By Kim Hyun-bin
Education Minister Kim Sang-kon vowed to focus on eradicating corruption in private education.
Speaking to reporters at the Sejong government complex on Tuesday marking his one-year anniversary in the job, the minister singled out corruption in private education and vowed to eradicate it in the coming months.
"For the months of July and August we will look into corruption in private education and have an inspection team read for this," Kim said. "Corruption in private education has been a longstanding evil that needs to be abolished. We will carry out inspections to end it."
Starting July 9, 30 inspectors will look into the financial transactions of universities in corruption.
The ministry is currently drawing up a detailed plan to better investigate suspected corruption.
The ministry has received 128 corruption reports involving 79 universities. To start, it plans to conduct a thorough comprehensive inspection of at least 15 of them.
When asked about the possibility of establishing a law on private schools, Kim said it will be difficult right now as it would need consensus from the National Assembly.
"There are some issues both parties agree on, but they have different opinions on key issues. We will work to enhance the overall quality of private education," he said.
Regarding autonomous private high schools, the ministry plans to allow students to apply to more than two. Currently, each student can apply to only one private high school.
"We set a policy to let students apply to two or more schools. We plan to hold a meeting with the deputy superintendent of education to decide on the issue. We are working with city and provincial education offices to enforce the policy," Kim said.
Most of the newly elected liberal education superintendents around the nation are seeking to abolish autonomous private high schools, which would require approval from the education minister.
"Under the regulation, city and provincial education superintendents make the first decision and the education minister needs to approve it. The Moon Jae-in administration aims to strengthen self-governing of education. We will fully respect the superintendents' authority and the ministry will try to input their opinions in the current regulation," he said.
Education Minister Kim Sang-kon vowed to focus on eradicating corruption in private education.
Speaking to reporters at the Sejong government complex on Tuesday marking his one-year anniversary in the job, the minister singled out corruption in private education and vowed to eradicate it in the coming months.
"For the months of July and August we will look into corruption in private education and have an inspection team read for this," Kim said. "Corruption in private education has been a longstanding evil that needs to be abolished. We will carry out inspections to end it."
Starting July 9, 30 inspectors will look into the financial transactions of universities in corruption.
The ministry is currently drawing up a detailed plan to better investigate suspected corruption.
The ministry has received 128 corruption reports involving 79 universities. To start, it plans to conduct a thorough comprehensive inspection of at least 15 of them.
When asked about the possibility of establishing a law on private schools, Kim said it will be difficult right now as it would need consensus from the National Assembly.
"There are some issues both parties agree on, but they have different opinions on key issues. We will work to enhance the overall quality of private education," he said.
Regarding autonomous private high schools, the ministry plans to allow students to apply to more than two. Currently, each student can apply to only one private high school.
"We set a policy to let students apply to two or more schools. We plan to hold a meeting with the deputy superintendent of education to decide on the issue. We are working with city and provincial education offices to enforce the policy," Kim said.
Most of the newly elected liberal education superintendents around the nation are seeking to abolish autonomous private high schools, which would require approval from the education minister.
"Under the regulation, city and provincial education superintendents make the first decision and the education minister needs to approve it. The Moon Jae-in administration aims to strengthen self-governing of education. We will fully respect the superintendents' authority and the ministry will try to input their opinions in the current regulation," he said.
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