Seoul Metropolitan Council Cuts 'Oh Se-hoon Signature Education Platform Budget'

Administrative Autonomy Committee Cuts Budget for Seoul-type Education Platform '(Tentative Name) Seoul Run' Due to Inadequate Project Preparation

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The Seoul Metropolitan Council’s Administrative Autonomy Committee (Chairman Lee Hyun-chan) has completely cut the budget for the Seoul-type education platform '(tentative name) Seoul Run' construction project and the customized online content support project without academic achievement gaps, both under the Lifelong Education Bureau, from the first supplementary budget of 2021.

The Seoul-type education platform '(tentative name) Seoul Run' construction is a new project to build an education platform to provide education regardless of region or income level, with a budget of 1.835 billion KRW. The 'customized online content support without academic achievement gaps' is a new project to provide education platforms and educational content so that low-income youth can receive education, with a budget of 4 billion KRW, submitted for review by the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

The Seoul Lifelong Education Bureau (Director Lee Dae-hyun) explained that these two projects aim to eliminate academic achievement gaps and are intended to implement online education by curriculum for youth from households with median income below 50%.

The Seoul Metropolitan Council’s Administrative Autonomy Committee, after in-depth budget review regarding the purpose, intent, necessity, appropriateness of budget scale, efficiency of implementation methods, effectiveness of the projects, and feasibility of achieving project goals, judged that preparations for project implementation were insufficient and agreed to cut the project budgets.

There was criticism that these projects had changed the essence of the project from ‘providing video lectures by subject’ to ‘providing education programs using AI,’ and thus did not properly reflect the project’s purpose and intent in the project content.

Also, although Seoul City explained that these projects are being promoted to innovate Seoul education using rapidly developing edutech, there was criticism that simply providing education through private online academies does not help eliminate academic achievement gaps and does not contribute to normalizing public education.

Seoul City explained that the purpose of these projects is to eliminate educational gaps, but under the current legal framework where education and academic affairs are the responsibility of the education office, there was an opinion that future consultation with the education office is necessary to determine whether it is appropriate for Seoul City to directly promote these projects to eliminate educational gaps.

The Seoul Lifelong Education Bureau explained that the difference from EBS educational broadcasting is that motivation can be provided through mentoring and career guidance. However, despite the project starting in August, there is no established plan for recruiting mentors, no budget allocated for operating the mentor group, raising questions about whether the project is being implemented according to a detailed plan and whether there is substantial differentiation from similar projects. There was also an opinion that the system development plan has not been established and that the project seems to be promoted based on enthusiasm alone.

Despite operating a similar education platform called ‘Seoul Lifelong Education Portal,’ there were many questions and answers about whether building a new education platform causes functional redundancy and whether allowing access to certain lectures from private online academies is more efficient than providing education vouchers.

Although a minority opinion stated, “No project can start perfectly prepared. Projects require continuous improvement and supplementation. At minimum, budget allocation to promote the project is necessary,” the committee resolved to cut the budget for the project with the opinion that “education-related projects require very careful promotion through active consultation between Seoul City and the education office, and sufficient time for project preparation is necessary.”

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