Cho Hee-yeon "Concerns over side effects like promoting private education in training 1 million digital talents... Need for measures to supplement teacher expansion"

Digital Talent Development Plan "Positive but Needs Improvement"
Regarding the Supplementary Budget Delay, "Fund Accumulation Is a Rational Administrative Model"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, expressed the need for supplementation regarding the government's announced 'Plan to Nurture One Million Digital Talents,' which focuses on strengthening coding education in elementary and secondary schools, stating that it could cause side effects.

On the 23rd, Superintendent Cho, at a press conference held at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in Jongno-gu, Seoul, said about the 'Comprehensive Plan to Nurture One Million Digital Talents' announced by the government the previous day, "It is inevitable as an element of future education," but also pointed out, "While it is important for students to develop computational thinking skills, if coding education becomes mandatory in the intense college entrance competition environment, side effects may arise."

He emphasized the need for supplementary measures regarding private education side effects and teacher expansion. Superintendent Cho said, "We need to face the anticipated problems such as private education and have supplementary measures like expanding the number of teachers," adding, "There has been a tendency for semiconductor workforce development to be concentrated in the metropolitan area, but policies should be designed to coexist between the metropolitan area and local regions."

Furthermore, regarding the delay in the Seoul Metropolitan Council's processing of the education office's supplementary budget proposal related to fund accumulation, he argued that it is a reasonable administrative model and worthy of praise. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education submitted a supplementary budget proposal worth 3.7337 trillion won on July 3rd to the city council, but it is currently stalled at the Education Committee and the Special Budget and Accounts Committee stages.

Superintendent Cho emphasized, "Fund accumulation is a reasonable administrative model," and said, "When the grants increase, it is a reasonable administrative model and praiseworthy not to spend recklessly but to accumulate funds."

He added, "If funds are spent without accumulation, there will be opposing opinions that it is reckless," and continued, "This is about accumulating the Education Finance Stabilization Fund, and the amount is just large."

Meanwhile, the education office expressed that if the execution of the supplementary budget is delayed, support for schools damaged by heavy rains will inevitably be delayed as well.

Kim Pil-gon, Director of Educational Administration at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said, "Recovery from flood damage caused by heavy rains is urgent," adding, "Currently, there is about 2 billion won in contingency funds, and we requested 10 billion won in the supplementary budget. As of the 18th, the estimated damage has already exceeded 10 billion won."

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