3rd Term First Day at Work Jo Hee-yeon "Accepting Conflicts with Oh Se-hoon and Government, Cooperating with an Open Attitude" (Comprehensive)

Jo Hee-yeon "Maintain the Major Direction of Innovative Education"
Opposes the Retention of Autonomous Private High Schools

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Jo Hee-yeon, the elected Superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said on his first commute after the local elections that regarding the confrontational stance with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon or the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, "I think it is good to endure conflicts but cooperate with an open attitude."

On the 2nd, Jo Hee-yeon, after confirming his third term, met with reporters while commuting to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and said, "During the past year with Mayor Oh Se-hoon, we boldly cooperated on areas such as free kindergarten meals and entrance preparation funds, and maintained an attitude of enduring conflicts or confrontations where necessary."

Regarding concerns that conflicts might arise over the abolition of autonomous private high schools (jasago) since the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took office, Jo said, "The government's position on the abolition of jasago has not yet been fully decided," adding, "I am opposed to maintaining jasago, and I hope the government seriously considers the wishes of the majority of general high school parents on this issue."

As for his election victory remarks, Jo said, "Although there might be fatigue from a third term, I believe Seoul citizens and parents have given positive evaluations of my past eight years of innovative education policies and administration."

He continued, "While maintaining the major theme of innovative education, I will review the criticisms, topics, and proposals raised by competing candidates or conservative candidates nationwide to develop comprehensive alternatives that embrace all aspects of children's knowledge, virtue, and physical education."

Jo Hee-yeon won his third term in the June 1 local elections with 38.10% of the vote. He became the first Seoul Superintendent of Education to win a third term since the introduction of direct elections. The runner-up, Jo Jeon-hyeok, received 23.49%, with a vote gap of 14.61 percentage points. Following were Park Seon-young (23.07%) in third place, Jo Young-dal (6.65%) in fourth, Yoon Ho-sang (5.34%) in fifth, and Choi Bo-seon (3.31%) in sixth. Although conservative candidates failed to unify and their combined vote share exceeded 50%, they were defeated by Superintendent Jo Hee-yeon.

When his victory was confirmed early that day, Jo said in his victory remarks, "Beyond eight years of innovative education, I will repay with the realization of higher-quality public education and a great transition to future education," adding, "I will make Seoul the world education capital, complete Seoul education, and change the Republic of Korea."

Jo said, "I will actively benchmark issues raised by competing candidates such as basic academic skills, childcare, improving the quality of after-school programs, and expanding free early childhood education," adding, "I will strive to become an education superintendent for all, beyond division and confrontation." He also said, "I will teach our children coexistence and communication, not hostility, exclusion, or hatred. I promise education of coexistence that respects diversity and where diversity blossoms."

In this election, Jo pledged "high-quality public education" as a campaign promise. This includes academic diagnosis through an AI academic improvement system, Seoul-type basic academic skills guarantee system, reducing the number of students per class to under 20, expanding childcare until 8 p.m. for young children and elementary students, strengthening math, science, and information education, zero-tolerance meals, expanding the principal recruitment system, and establishing Seoul-type public alternative schools.

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