Preliminary Candidate Sungki Kwon Vows to End the "Ranking-Based" Personnel System

Comprehensive Overhaul of Teacher Personnel System to Restore Fairness
Diversified Performance Recognition, Fair and Transparent Personnel Management

Sungki Kwon, preliminary candidate for Gyeongnam Superintendent of Education, announced his pledge on April 26 to reform the teacher personnel and transfer system, aiming to resolve imbalances and excessive competition in teacher personnel management and to significantly strengthen fairness and transparency.

In a press release on the same day, Kwon stated, "The current teacher personnel system leads to excessively concentrated competition in certain areas, and differing standards by school have repeatedly raised issues of fairness," adding, "I will establish a rational and trusted personnel system that reflects voices from the field."

Kwon Sunkie, Candidate for Superintendent of Education in Gyeongnam Province.
Photo by Kwon Sunkie

To this end, a "Teacher Personnel System Improvement Task Force" will be formed in the second half of 2026, and teachers' opinions will be widely collected through surveys and on-site meetings. Afterward, a reform plan will be developed and gradually implemented following a public consultation process.

The core of this pledge is to diversify the standards for performance recognition and strengthen transparency in personnel management. Teacher achievements in various fields—including research, sports, arts, and science—will be reflected in a more balanced manner, improving the current system that grants extra points disproportionately to specific areas.

In particular, to address the problem of excessive competition caused by the decrease in research schools, the current joint extra points system will be converted into an individual effort-based research competition selection extra points system.

Additionally, the extra points for promotion and transfer, which have mainly been awarded for elite sports competitions, will be expanded to include areas such as sports for all, arts, academics, science, and research, so that teachers' diverse educational activities are evaluated fairly.

Transparency in personnel management will also be greatly enhanced. The personnel advisory committee, which has been criticized for being operated privately, will introduce a public system that allows participation or verification by a large number of teachers, thereby increasing fairness and trust.

Furthermore, to address the issue of arbitrary standards applied by each school in the process of transferring surplus teachers caused by declining student numbers, the education support office will be required to set standardized criteria for transfers.

Through this, the plan is to fundamentally block unreasonable cases that benefit particular teachers.

In addition, personnel regulations that are ambiguous or lack effectiveness will be comprehensively revised. Expressions will be clarified and unnecessary provisions will be boldly eliminated to establish personnel standards that anyone can understand.

Kwon stated, "Fair personnel management for teachers is the best welfare and the starting point for educational competitiveness," and added, "By creating a personnel system whose results everyone can accept, we will restore teachers' pride and rebuild trust in Gyeongnam education."

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