Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Project Emergency Maintenance... "Reducing Burden on School Sites"

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 21st that it will significantly adjust the education office projects scheduled for this year due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

The Office of Education explained that this is to allow schools to focus solely on essential educational activities such as classes and student guidance. This adjustment was carried out simultaneously by both the education office and schools.

The urgent adjustment for schools focused on autonomous decision-making regarding budget execution. Among 321 purpose-specific expenses for which budgets had already been allocated to schools, excluding projects that require settlement and return to related organizations, 179 cases (approximately 263.7 billion KRW) were allowed for schools to autonomously decide whether to implement and determine the scale.

In the case of the education office, a total of 350 projects directly executed by each department, affiliated institutions, and education support offices were suspended or adjusted, reducing the budget by about 60.2 billion KRW. Large group events were converted to online formats, and teacher training sessions were canceled or shifted to remote training methods.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education plans to reduce evaluations of pledge fulfillment and organizational performance assessments, and also intends to prepare a supplementary budget bill to adjust the budget according to the urgent adjustments.

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