First impression of 'Conservative' Education Committee Chairman on 'Progressive' Superintendent of Education? "A kind teacher, let's go together".

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]
□ Broadcast Date: November 6, 2024 (Wednesday)
□ Host: announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Park Sang-hyuk, chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council Education Committee

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): It is a wise special citizen's life time with the Seoul Metropolitan Council, a legislative body that represents the voices of 10 million Seoul citizens. Today, we will be joined by Park Sang-hyuk, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, who is the chairman of the education committee. Senator, welcome.

◇Park Sang-hyuk, chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council Education Committee (hereinafter, Park Sang-hyuk): Yes, hello.

◆Park Gui-bin: Please say hello to our wise radio listeners and citizens first. It's on the camera in front of you.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Hello, YTN radio listeners. I'm Park Sang-hyuk, chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Education Committee, who is serving our children. Thank you for inviting me to such a wise radio life.

◆Park Gui Bin: Yes, thank you. During the busy time these days, he took a moment to come out. I'm going to say that in a little while. First of all, he is the chairman of the education committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. You must be looking into all the pending issues of education in Seoul, but for the first time, I heard that the chairman of the education committee has changed due to the power of the people in the Democratic Party. What do you think? Please tell us how you feel about winning the election.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: It's been 12 years since I became the chairman of the Board of Education.

◆Park Gui-bin: I see. That's right.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: That's why people around me have high expectations, and we have to work with lawmakers regardless of whether we are ruling or opposition parties, so I feel a great sense of responsibility in this area and I also want to lead this education a little differently from the past. Anyway, the Board of Education is a place for our children. Regardless of whether it's ruling or opposition, I think I'll do everything based on children's standards, regardless of ideology.

◆Park Gui-bin: You also recently had a meeting with the newly inaugurated superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Jeong Geun-sik. I heard that Mayor Oh Se-hoon was also there. How did you feel about the first meeting?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: At first, I met Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik, and now I think he looks like a teacher. I thought he was like a kind teacher. We talked a lot about it when we met. I talked about it honestly for about 40 minutes. After my thoughts on education, there was a lot of communication with each other about the superintendent's new superintendent's thoughts on education and how to lead in the future. But the most important thing was that there were some of our children in it. As you said earlier, Mayor Oh Se-hoon and I met for the first time. Let's go together. That's why I said let's go together.

◆Park Gui-bin: That's how you accomplished it. Are you looking forward to working with the new superintendent in the future?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Of course, you can look forward to it now. In any case, his view of the world may be different, but in the end, it's not that difficult considering that the point of view is our children. I think so. In many areas, I'm trying to strengthen communication through cooperation and understanding each other. We have a big agreement on that. It's been about 15 days now, and Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik is having very busy schedules now, and I've met him seven times.

◆Park Gui Bin: Didn't you see him very often?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: I think I watched it almost every other day.

◆Park Gui-bin: You must have been best friends.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: I'm thinking like a teacher.

◆Park Gui-bin: So the superintendent of education is now the liberal education superintendent and the chairman of the Board of Education is the chairman of the conservative education committee, so if we meet every other day and communicate with each other through conversation, we can narrow the distance little by little or maybe we can come up with a better idea.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Of course. What I first told Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik was that the chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is our children. And for our children, all educational policies and budgets will be implemented on our children's basis. I said that's my belief. In the end, I think the goal of education is to raise our children well and healthy so that they can study in a good environment, and to go out and realize their dreams as they grow up in society. The superintendent of education is in the same position on that.

◆Park Gui-bin: Of course. So, I'm looking forward to your good chemistry in the future, but at the same time, I'll ask you a question about pending issues in the education community. In April, the Seoul Metropolitan Council passed the abolition of the Student Human Rights Ordinance. The application for suspension of execution was cited by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, but the superintendent of education, Jeong Geun-sik, like the teacher you just mentioned, showed his position that he should remain in the Student Human Rights Ordinance. What is your position here as the chairman of the Board of Education?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Anyway, in the first half of the year, there was a big disagreement between the superintendent of education and the Seoul Metropolitan Council on such student human rights ordinances. The law's judgment was made again, but anyway, it is. The original function of the Seoul Metropolitan Council is now a representative organization of citizens. So, in that sense, the abolition ordinance was also carried out with the will of citizens. Next, there is an alternative to this right now. As an alternative to the Student Human Rights Ordinance, the ordinance on the rights of school members has now been passed. Then, in that sense, it may be a little different, but there are some things that you have to wait a little bit for the judgment of the law. In that area, we'll communicate a little more with the Office of Education to see what fits our children and there are school members and teachers and parents. If we think about those things together, I think a good solution will come out.

◆Park Gwibin: I see. I am with Park Sang-hyuk, the chairman of the education committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. When the members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council come out, we will proceed with a small corner. This is the citizen report of Seoul Metropolitan Councilman Park Sang-hyuk. You can tell the citizens one by one with the mindset of posting payments. The first thing you want to report was that you came out for a while in a very busy season that we mentioned earlier. I'm talking about the administrative audit of the Office of Education. Please take a look at the first one and explain it to me.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: The administrative audit has just begun. So it will last for about two weeks. In the case of the Seoul Metropolitan Board of Education, it is in charge of all the affairs of Seoul kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school. And those schools are all over Seoul. That's why the range is quite wide. And since we are dealing with problems about our children, we have to carefully examine the various policies and budget execution conditions that the Office of Education has been doing. There have been various problems, but there has been a controversy over basic academic ability and the problem of school width recently.

◆Park Gui Bin: That's right.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: There's the school meal problem and then there's the problem of some excessive spending on private education. Recently, the problem is that due to the introduction of electronic devices in spring schools, divots, electronic blackboards, and digital textbooks will be introduced in the educational field this year. It will be implemented from next year. We're dealing with all of those issues right now.

◆Park Gui-bin: The budget plan for the Office of Education in 2025 is also scheduled to be reviewed. What part will you focus on and deliberate on?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Now the budget structure of education is a little simple in a way. If you earn about 100 million won by making good money, you're going to spend 21 million won a month on education. If I can only make 1 million won because I don't make good money, it means that I will educate and spend 210,000 won. The tax revenue has decreased a lot right now. So, in this year's case, we are now organizing the main budget by reducing about 43% in the main budget next year. That amount is about 660 billion won. As tax revenues have decreased like this, the budget handed over from the Office of Education to the Seoul Metropolitan Council has now been raised considerably by the reduction. Excluding wages and fixed costs, many parts of educational environment facilities and policy projects are being cut, so it is a challenge to select them.

◆Park Gui-bin: I see.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Anyway, since the revenue is decreasing so suddenly, there is a special account for the Seoul Metropolitan Government's education expenses in budgeting. The revenue is not currently being held. As a result, there are things that are currently being hung as tobacco taxes or sunset systems. Such things must also be resolved well with the National Assembly.

◆Park Gwibin: I see. The first report of the Office of Education's administrative audit. The second one is... As expected, it is a big issue in the education world. It's about reservation integration, but there's a bill you recently proposed. This is the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's Childcare Education Promotion Ordinance. What is it about?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Now, the reservation integration is a national agenda. The reservation integration has the fundamental purpose of improving the quality of education and equalizing opportunities, but to put it simply, it means combining kindergarten and daycare center. As a result, various problems are bound to arise. Since the system was different, the fundamental purpose of collecting it as one is that it is difficult to raise children and kindergarten education at home because of the low birth rate. In order to provide some policy support for those things, it is fundamentally meaningful now. That's why it's a national agenda. The system is now only revised in the Government Organization Act anyway, but at least in the Childcare Education Promotion Ordinance, I have prepared the basis for the plan, the superintendent's responsibility, and the research and implementation survey through it so that the system, or retention integration, can be established well. Based on that, the reservation integration will now proceed.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Yes, I see. Above all, I think it's important to proceed well without much confusion on the spot.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: That's right. Now, the Ministry of Education, Seoul City Hall, and the Office of Education are intertwined. And now, it's a financial problem, so when kindergarten is eventually all reserved integration is organized and completed according to the roadmap, all the work will now be transferred to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Then, how to reorganize the budget and organization, and kindergarten teachers and childcare teachers are different. So, there are tasks that are piled up right now, such as training and transportation. It's the first step of a talent. On November 19th, there will be a grand debate for the integrated development of reservation.

◆Park Gui-bin: I see. Yes, I see.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Many people will participate and talk together.

◆Park Gwi-bin: Is there anything you want to report for the third time? I'll give you a short time.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Okay. The third thing I want to say is... Our children have a lot of pending issues, but anyway, our children's finances have been reduced so much that school facilities improvement and such are big issues. So school, nevertheless, reduces unnecessary budgets so that they can study in a better environment for children, and especially now there's some overcrowding. Some areas are also in the decline of the school-age population.

◆Park Gui-bin: Some schools are closed. within the city of Seoul.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: As a result, there are different situations in each region. So, we and the Office of Education are trying to think a lot about how to harmonize it and come up with good policies.

◆Park Gui-bin: I think you'll hear a lot of stories on the spot as well.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: After I became the chairman of the committee, I had a school meeting and all the schools over there had a meeting. Then, at the level of our committee, there are 11 education support offices in Seoul. It is divided into districts, and we plan to plan our members next year and prepare a place for all city council members, parents, and teachers in the area to participate in each support office.

◆Park Gui-bin: You're also a parent. So, I think that more than anyone else, they will take care of school education one by one with their parents' mind.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: I've been receiving a lot of reports lately. Now, I'm dealing with instinctive policies and reporting and going to the field and talking to those parents and teachers. But the important thing is that I told you my belief, but based on our children's standards. The answer comes out. And if you think it's my child. The way you look at it changes.

◆Park Gui-bin: This is the last question I always ask when lawmakers come out of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. Park Sang-hyuk, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, is ○○○. I'm asking you to fill in ○○○ like this, how can you fill it?

◇Park Sang-hyuk: We are (G)I-DLE.

◆Park Gui Bin: Do you have about 100 left today? Please explain it to me.

◇ Park Sang-hyuk: As I said earlier, education is for our children. These children have to lead our future again. Let's not keep putting political things and other things in here, but let's change it now. We also talked with the superintendent of education. It's like 50 or 100 years, so it's called the centennial period. But let's really try it. That's what I told you. So I decided to have a little discussion.

◆Park Gwibin: I see. Park Sang-hyuk, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, is our children's constituency icon. That's all for today's talk. So far, Park Sang-hyuk, the chairman of the education committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, has been a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Thank you for coming out during this busy period.

◇Park Sang-hyuk: Yes, thank you.