Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education Faces Emergency Over Next Year's Education Budget Cuts

Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] The Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education is facing an emergency in managing next year's education finances due to a reduction in the Local Education Finance Grant, a major source of funding for early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school education.

According to the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education on the 13th, the Ministry of Education announced at the city and provincial education office budget managers' meeting on the 8th that it plans to reduce the general grant, a key funding source for next year's budget, by 209 billion KRW compared to last year's original budget.

This is because the Ministry of Education's Local Education Finance Grant decreased by 2 trillion KRW compared to the previous year due to a decline in government tax revenue caused by the impact of COVID-19.

Since local education finances largely depend on grants due to the inability to increase self-generated income, the reduction in the general grant, which accounts for a high proportion, acts as a factor that worsens local education finances.

Next year's general grant for the Jeonnam Office of Education is 2.99 trillion KRW, breaking the 3 trillion KRW level that had been maintained for three years since 2018. In particular, the reduced 200 billion KRW corresponds to the annual basic operating expenses for all early childhood, elementary, middle, high, and special schools in Jeonnam Province.

Moreover, while the general grant has decreased, regular expenditures such as personnel costs continue to rise, and new spending demands have emerged due to COVID-19 for quarantine and building a foundation for future education, making the impact of the grant reduction feel even greater.

The Office of Education expressed concern that the financial difficulties caused by the 120 billion KRW reduction in the general grant for Jeonnam Education this year due to the government's third supplementary budget will continue into next year, potentially disrupting education for children in Jeonnam.

Yoon Myung-sik, head of the Budget Division, said, "Following this year, the reduction in the general grant next year will make managing Jeonnam's education finances very difficult," adding, "We will continuously consider ways to secure education finances stably through strategic financial management so that budgets related to the essence of education are not cut."

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