Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Withdraws Supplementary Budget Proposal... "Efforts to Convene March Extraordinary Session"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has withdrawn the supplementary budget (supplementary budget) of 472.4 billion KRW submitted to the Seoul Metropolitan Council and decided to continue one-point discussions with the Seoul Metropolitan Council at the end of March.

On the 20th, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that five people, including Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon, the ruling and opposition floor leaders of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, the chairman and vice chairman of the Education Committee, held a meeting and agreed to make efforts to convene a one-point extraordinary session for the supplementary budget processing around the end of March.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the Seoul Metropolitan Council explained in a joint statement that the supplementary budget processing in February was postponed because additional transfers received this month from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and autonomous districts, as well as confirmed grants from the Ministry of Education, have occurred, requiring the submission of a second supplementary budget proposal.

They stated, "Since prompt re-supplementary budgeting is difficult, in order to carry out an integrated supplementary budget, instead of the current supplementary budget, an integrated supplementary budget proposal will be submitted," and "The Seoul Metropolitan Council has accepted this point and agreed to make efforts to convene a one-point extraordinary session at the end of March to resolve difficulties at school sites."

The supplementary budget proposal of 472.4 billion KRW submitted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education includes public utility fees and inflation increases in basic school operating expenses, including heating and cooling costs for public schools. Accordingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education aimed to process the supplementary budget before March, when the new school year begins.

However, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, led by the progressive Superintendent Cho, has faced difficulties in the Seoul Metropolitan Council, where the People Power Party holds the majority, since the budget formulation process last year.

This year's budget for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education was approved by the Seoul Metropolitan Council in December last year at a total of 12.3227 trillion KRW, which was 568.8 billion KRW (4.4%) less than the original proposal submitted by the Office of Education.

Accordingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education restructured part of the reduced amount (472.4 billion KRW) into a supplementary budget proposal and submitted it to the council.

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