Lee Jae-jung "Discussing with Government to Lower Superintendent Election Age to 16"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-jung, Superintendent of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, announced that he will actively discuss with the government the plan to lower the voting age to 16 so that youth, the main subjects of education, can elect the superintendent.

At a New Year's press conference held on the 8th at Bangchon Hall of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education in Suwon, Superintendent Lee said, "Youth, who are the main subjects of education, should elect the superintendent," and promised, "Starting from 2022, I will discuss with the government and related agencies the plan to lower the voting age for superintendent elections to 16."

He added, "From the March 1st Movement to the April 19th Democratic Revolution and the Candlelight Protests, the agents who changed the course of history were students and youth," and "Students also have sufficient qualifications to exercise suffrage as democratic citizens."

He also expressed expectations, saying, "The revision bill of the Public Official Election Act, which lowers the voting age from 19 to 18, has been passed, and about 35,000 students in the province will exercise their rights as democratic citizens starting from the April general election," and "Through this general election, youth will grow one step further as healthy democratic citizens."

He continued, "The Provincial Office of Education has already been continuously providing voter education by developing and utilizing a total of 10 textbooks in three categories: democratic citizens, unification citizens, and global citizens," and "We will strengthen education centered on suffrage going forward."

Furthermore, he promised, "We will expand the number of high school credit system research and leading schools from 124 last year to 229 this year, and pilot operate itinerant teachers specializing in education, psychology, and logic to support the increasing curriculum, thereby expanding various curricula that nurture students' aptitudes."

In particular, he emphasized, "We will concretize the future education system by providing WiFi and wireless devices in each classroom, conducting Google Korea training for 210 elementary school teachers this month, and discussing support for educational activities with Microsoft."

Superintendent Lee said, "A school where teachers are happy is a school where children are happy," and stated, "We will gather opinions from students, teachers, parents, and the local community to promote the enactment of related ordinances so that teachers can be respected as mentors and carry out educational activities."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.