Jeonnam Elementary School Sports Instructors' Conversion to Permanent Contract Sparks Mixed Opinions Among Prospective Candidates

Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education Recently Announces Lecturer Status Conversion

Preliminary Candidate Kim Dae-jung Advocates 'Caution' · Preliminary Candidate Kim Dong-hwan Opposes, Tensions Rise

Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] Opinions among the preliminary candidates for the June Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education Superintendent election diverged over the recent announcement by the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education regarding the conversion of elementary school sports instructors in the province to indefinite-term contract positions.

One side advocates caution, while the other opposes, resulting in a tense standoff.

The Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education announced on the 3rd the conversion of elementary sports instructors to indefinite-term contract positions.

They plan to convert elementary sports instructors holding sports instructor certifications into elementary sports instructors to actively utilize them in student-led school sports club guidance and assistance in regular physical education classes.

Regarding this, preliminary candidate Kim Dae-jung expressed a cautious stance, while preliminary candidate Kim Dong-hwan opposed it.

Preliminary candidate Kim Dong-hwan criticized, “This announcement by the Jeonnam Office of Education is one of the promises for improving treatment that ignores the essence of education,” adding, “It is facing strong opposition from the education field, which questions whether this is a populist policy by the current superintendent, raising reasonable doubts.”

He continued, “I deeply regret this policy, which is being pushed unilaterally without listening to the voices of teachers, who are experts in the school field, and only considering votes,” and said, “Stop immediately the act of politicizing school education, which should pursue the essence of education, and present fundamental alternatives to strengthen elementary physical education and revitalize school sports.”

Preliminary candidate Kim Dae-jung had a different view.

He said, “Stabilizing the status and improving the treatment of public officials has long been a demand, and converting to indefinite-term contracts is a task that the educational community should solve and is certainly welcome. However, if handled unilaterally like this without careful approach, it will cause division and conflict.”

He also explained, “First, a comprehensive plan for all educational public officials must be established. The absence of a plan for all educational public officials inevitably leads to administration that picks and chooses what suits its taste,” adding, “The lack of dialogue and communication inevitably results in arbitrary and uncommunicative administration that blames others.”

He further argued, “For the diverse educational public official families to communicate and cooperate, predictable plans and continuous communication are necessary,” and “Considering the different contract methods at each regional support office and the varying treatment conditions by job type, a comprehensive plan for all educational public officials should be established, and a department and center responsible for this should be created to become a trusted administration.”

In response, a related official from the Provincial Office of Education stated, “The conversion of sports instructors to indefinite-term contracts has been a campaign pledge of the current superintendent and has been under negotiation for several years,” adding, “The school field needs public officials to assist separately from full-time physical education teachers, and although there is some controversy over the role of teachers’ status, teachers are national public officials and are clearly a different category from public officials.”

He added, “However, when these instructors retire or are dismissed, there are no plans to replenish new personnel,” and “Sports instructors converted to indefinite-term contracts will be directly hired by the regional education superintendent and operated as rotational positions.”

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