[Reporter’s Notebook] Park Sunae, Who Proposed 'Discard' After 4 Days, A Disaster Caused by Hastiness

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Park Soon-ae is listening to a participant's remarks at a meeting with parent organizations regarding the lowering of the school entry age held on the 2nd at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Park Soon-ae mentioned the word "abolishment" just four days after proposing a school system reform plan to enroll children in elementary school starting at age five. At a meeting with parent organizations held on the afternoon of the 2nd, when representatives repeatedly asked about the possibility of withdrawing the policy, Minister Park said, "If the public truly says this policy is not acceptable, it can be abolished."

After the Ministry of Education's work report on the 29th of last month, Park Soon-ae had planned to gather public opinion through a vote involving 20,000 students and parents. However, after receiving a message from the Presidential Office to "listen to public opinion," she hurriedly arranged meetings with parent organizations. One parent group representative demanded the policy's withdrawal and said, "After the rally, we will even proceed with a resignation campaign." This was a somewhat predictable outcome.

Jung Ji-hyun, co-representative of the organization Education Without Private Tutoring Worries, tearfully said, "As a parent expecting a second child, I feel a sense of self-reproach for planning to have a child at a time when a policy that takes away precious moments from children is being implemented." Minister Park comforted the tearful parent representative by holding her hand and said, "If we hadn't raised this issue, would we have been able to discuss it while listening to parents' voices?" This can be interpreted as an attempt to justify the hasty announcement without prior consultation with the policy's target groups.

Minister Park cited the reason for the school system reform as wanting to provide better education even to children who cannot attend kindergarten or are in blind spots of childcare. Implicit in this is an industrial logic to lower the school entry age and Minister Park's perception that "children's maturity has accelerated." If that is the intention, it would be more appropriate to address it through early childhood education policies rather than school system reform.

Considering her remarks during the work report that lowering the school entry age by up to two years was considered, and the proposal of an alternative plan to enroll children divided by 12 months, it seems that Minister Park's deliberation was not deep. The Korea Educational Development Institute stated in a report last year related to school system reform that it is difficult to find evidence supporting the popular notion that "children nowadays are smarter," i.e., that young children's cognitive abilities have improved. It also said, "The educational and economic damage and losses to certain age groups caused by the reform cannot be ignored, and if the benefits of the reform do not compensate for these, the school system reform plan must be handled very cautiously." If the minister had even read such a report once, could she have introduced such hasty policies?

The time for resolving the issue is approaching. If a policy that only causes confusion is pushed through, it will inevitably face a greater backlash. We hope that the major missteps created by a government without philosophy and a minister lacking thoughtfulness will not continue any further.

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