[Opinion] Concerns and Expectations Regarding Presidential Election Education Pledges

The presidential election is less than four months away. Both the ruling and opposition parties have finalized their presidential candidates, and now the competition to develop election pledges is in full swing. When it comes to election pledges, worries often outweigh expectations. One concern is about the political neutrality of education as stipulated by the Constitution. Education pledges that reflect the interests of political parties?that is, those recklessly announced to seize power?can cause political bias in education. It is questionable whether it is appropriate for presidential candidates, who must uphold the Constitution, to violate the political neutrality of education by recklessly issuing education pledges.

Another concern is the confusion caused during the implementation of education pledges that appear every election cycle. Education primarily functions conservatively to pass down cultural heritage from the past. Of course, education also prepares for future society and fosters the driving force for social reform, but these functions are secondary. When education policies that are being steadily implemented are disrupted by elections, the ones who ultimately suffer are powerless students.

Since the civilian government era, there have been more negative than positive education pledges reflected in policies. Many policies have caused conflicts between social classes and regions, and many have led to political division due to clashes between ruling and opposition parties. Even looking at the current government without going far back, there are considerable concerns about policies such as the abolition of autonomous private high schools, the establishment of the National Education Commission, university entrance exam reforms, early introduction of the high school credit system, and curriculum revisions.

Most education policies regarded as achievements of any party or president are not really the policies of that party or president, but rather policies that had to be pursued regardless of which party was in power or which president was elected. In other words, these were policies already being prepared within the government. Policies that caused confusion and were immediately discarded after the administration ended were those pushed recklessly under the name of pledges even when preparations were insufficient.

Education can be maintained stably and without confusion when politics refrains from interfering as much as possible. Most education pledges developed by education experts participating in each campaign are difficult to avoid political bias. The motivation for education experts to join a campaign can be political, and realistically, to develop differentiated pledges that align with a candidate’s political stance, experts with some degree of political bias are needed.

Looking back over the past 30 years, the most successful education pledges were those that supported education without political bias, such as expanding education funding. The civilian government’s pledge to secure 5% of the Gross National Product (GNP) for education is evaluated as having upgraded the quality of education by one level. Major education policies such as reducing class sizes, completing compulsory education at the middle school level, introducing the Nuri Curriculum, and implementing free high school education are not unrelated to securing 5% of GNP for education funding. The achievements of the People’s Government’s pledge to secure 6% of GNP for education funding are also in the same context.

On the other hand, the half-price tuition policy, recklessly pushed as part of election pledges, devastated university education. I believe the theme of this presidential election’s education pledges should focus on expanding university funding. If a Higher Education Finance Grant Act is established to secure university finances stably and revive universities in critical condition, it will receive broad and long-term national support beyond any other education pledge. I look forward to the pledge to establish the Higher Education Finance Grant Act.

Song Ki-chang, Professor, Department of Education, Sookmyung Women’s University

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