Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education "Immediate Appeal Against Invalidation Lawsuit of Daewon and Yeonghun International Middle Schools"

Seoul Administrative Court Rules Cancellation of Specialized Middle School Designation Invalid
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to Appeal Immediately Upon Receiving Judgment
"Ministry of Education Must Convert All International Middle Schools Nationwide to General Middle Schools"

Parents of Yeonghun and Daewon International Middle School held a silent protest on the 29th in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in Jongno-gu, Seoul, holding placards to urge opposition to the abolition of Yeonghun and Daewon International Middle School. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 17th that it will immediately appeal the Seoul Administrative Court's ruling that upheld the lawsuit against the cancellation of the designation of Daewon International Middle School and Yeonghoon International Middle School.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education stated on the same day, "We express deep concern and regret over the ruling that accepted the request to cancel the designation cancellation of specialized middle schools filed by the Daewon Academy Foundation and Yeonghoon Academy Foundation, and we will immediately appeal."

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education argued that predictability was sufficient as it maintained the same evaluation method, areas, and items as the 2015 evaluation.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education stated, "The evaluation of the operation performance of specialized middle schools, conducted regularly every five years, was carried out fairly according to proper procedures, and there were no legal or administrative issues during the administrative disposition process."

It added, "Indicators such as 'appropriateness of conducting the impact assessment of the admission process,' which lost validity as an evaluation item due to the transition to a lottery system for new student selection, were deleted, and the cancellation criteria scores and weightings were adjusted," explaining that "only a few detailed items were changed within the scope of the existing school-specific evaluation indicators."

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education raised the scores for 'average' and 'insufficient' and adjusted the cancellation criteria score to 70 points, which corresponds to receiving an 'average' evaluation in all items, and strengthened the audit and pointed-out cases indicators. In this process, the two schools received the maximum deduction score of 10 points due to audit results.

Regarding this, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education explained, "It is entirely predictable that the major policies of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, announced and promoted through annual school evaluations, official documents, and major work guidance, would be reflected in the evaluation indicators, and the 'audit and pointed-out cases' indicator has also been a predictable item maintained since 2015."

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education further stated, "It is neither possible nor desirable to establish all evaluation indicators five years in advance and notify schools while conducting a five-year evaluation of school operations," adding, "In other types of school evaluations, evaluation indicators are also required to be announced 'before the start of the academic year in which the evaluation is conducted.'"

Additionally, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education emphasized that the suspension of appeals related to autonomous private high schools (Jasago) in January was to conclude lawsuits whose significance diminished due to the 2025 conversion of autonomous private high schools to general high schools, and that this case is different in meaning.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education explained, "At the compulsory education stage of middle school, the existence of international middle schools has perpetuated educational inequality. Since the establishment of international middle schools, kindergarten and elementary school students have been subjected to entrance exam competition, which has led to criticism that it encourages private education," adding, "International middle schools impose excessive tuition fees averaging over 10 million won annually, creating social discord and causing students to experience frustration due to entry barriers influenced by their parents' economic power, resulting in many side effects."

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education stated, "The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has aimed to realize true educational fairness where anyone can receive the education they desire regardless of their parents' economic power," and emphasized, "We propose to the Ministry of Education to uniformly convert all international middle schools nationwide into general middle schools through amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, similar to autonomous private high schools."

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said, "The 2020 evaluation of international middle school operations was a public procedure conducted fairly and rationally according to relevant laws and regulations, but we strongly regret the court ruling that overturned the evaluation results," and added, "We hope that through the appeal, a thorough verification of the fairness and legitimacy of the evaluation will be conducted and that we will take one step closer to normalizing public education."

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