Court Rules "Cancellation of Designation of Kyunghee High School and Handae High School as Autonomous Private High Schools Illegal"… 8 Schools Win First Trial (Update)

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Kyunghee High School and Handae High School won a lawsuit filed against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education challenging the cancellation of their designation as autonomous private high schools.

On the afternoon of the 28th, the Administrative Division 1 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Chief Judge An Jonghwa) ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in the first trial of the lawsuit filed by Kyunghee Foundation (Kyunghee High School) and Hanyang Foundation (Handae High School) against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, seeking cancellation of the designation cancellation of autonomous private high schools. With the victory of these two autonomous private high schools, all eight autonomous private high schools that filed first trial lawsuits against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education have won their cases, at least for now.

Previously, on July 13, 2019, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education decided to cancel the designation of eight autonomous private high schools among 13, including Sehwa High School, Paichai High School, Kyunghee High School, Soongmoon High School, Shinil High School, Ewha Girls' High School, Joongang High School, and Handae High School. In response, the autonomous private high schools took legal action against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in August of the same year.

So far, the court has ruled in favor of the schools, judging that the change in the 2019 evaluation plan without prior notice was an abuse and deviation of discretion by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Accordingly, starting with the victory of Sehwa High School and Paichai High School on February 18, all eight autonomous private high schools have consecutively won in the first trial. On the other hand, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has appealed every time a ruling was made.

Meanwhile, the principals of the eight autonomous private high schools plan to hold a press conference on the day to demand that Cho Heeyeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, withdraw the appeal.

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