[New Year Interview] Jang Seok-woong, Jeonnam Superintendent of Education, "Returning to the Beginning for Jeonnam Education Innovation"

Jang Seok-woong, Superintendent of Education of Jeonnam

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[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] “I will not be intoxicated by being ranked number one in the superintendent approval ratings, but will return to my original intention and do my best to innovate Jeonnam education solely for the students and overcome COVID-19.”

Jeonnam Superintendent of Education Jang Seok-woong, who has ranked first for 20 consecutive months in the nationwide evaluation of the duties of 17 city and provincial superintendents since his inauguration, stated this in a New Year interview with Asia Economy on the 14th.

Superintendent Jang said, “The secret to being number one for 20 consecutive months seems to be that the message of ‘Innovative Jeonnam Education where everyone is precious’ over the past two and a half years, focusing on student-centered classroom reform, has been conveyed to the residents. It appears that this fact had a positive impact on the job performance support survey,” he evaluated.

Among the major achievements of the pledges promoted after his inauguration, Superintendent Jang cited ▲ establishment of school support centers ▲ expansion of learning communities ▲ free meals and education at high schools ▲ individualized student guidance ▲ introduction of the nation’s first Edu Taxi ▲ expansion of village education communities.

He especially highly evaluated the establishment of school support centers in city and county education offices for the first time in the nation, which reduced the excessive administrative work of schools such as school violence and various contract tasks.

He explained, “The school support center handles the complex administrative tasks of schools on their behalf. It also supports school personnel management such as prevention and handling of school violence, hiring of after-school instructors, and contract teachers.” He added, “In last year’s satisfaction survey on the school support center, 9 out of 10 people evaluated it positively. In particular, satisfaction with support for handling school violence tasks was high (4.43 points out of 5).”

He continued, “Since the center was established not long ago, support has mainly been concentrated on elementary and middle schools, and only part of the school hiring tasks are supported, which is a shortcoming. We will prepare improvement plans and strengthen school support for this. In the short term, we plan to expand support to kindergartens and high schools, and in the mid to long term, expand support further.”

Regarding the expansion of learning communities and the free transition of high school meals and education, he emphasized, “We strengthened the public nature of education and proactively expanded educational welfare. We converted all high school meals in the province to free meals and realized full free high school education two years ahead of the government plan.”

He also added, “To provide individualized student guidance and basic learning for lower grades in elementary school, we reduced the number of students per first-grade class in city and eup (town) area schools from 30 to 25 for the first time nationwide, creating conditions for individualized student guidance. To strengthen responsible guidance for early literacy and numeracy, we established a dedicated basic academic skills team and assigned responsible teachers. Considering Jeonnam’s poor commuting conditions, we also introduced the nation’s first Edu Taxi.”

Superintendent Jang said, “To realize educational autonomy through communication and cooperation, we greatly expanded village education communities and established education participation committees in all cities and counties to fill gaps in educational administration. We also enacted a parent support ordinance to allow parents to participate democratically in school education.”

Jang Seok-woong, Superintendent of Education for Jeonnam Province, is giving a New Year's interview.

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Regarding the plan to reduce the headquarters staff by more than 5%, he said, “By March, we plan to reduce unnecessary projects such as exhibition projects at the headquarters and reduce personnel in each department by more than 5%, reallocating them to city and county education support offices and schools.” He added, “The provincial education office will be reorganized to focus on policy, and regional offices will be reorganized to focus on school support to achieve administrative innovation.”

He also stated, “We will grant some personnel authority, budget authority, and supervisory authority over regional high schools to education support offices to increase their autonomy, achieving administrative innovation so that schools and regional education offices, not the provincial education office, become the center.” He emphasized, “Rigid organizational culture is difficult to respond to rapidly changing and unpredictable situations. We will make it a living democratic organization where members communicate and empathize.”

Along with this, Superintendent Jang predicted that blended learning, which combines the advantages of remote and face-to-face classes, will be the future of education to prepare for the COVID-19 crisis and the post-COVID era.

Superintendent Jang said, “Even after COVID-19, the need to combine remote and in-person classes will repeat. In the future, blended learning that mixes the advantages of remote and face-to-face classes will be the model of future education.”

He also said, “Future education will shift from rote learning to self-directed learning where students ‘study by themselves, think by themselves, and solve problems by themselves,’” and predicted that teachers will move away from merely delivering subject knowledge to becoming counselors who assist and guide student development.

To this end, the provincial education office plans to expand the establishment of remote learning infrastructure, development of blended learning materials, operation of leading schools for classes (60 schools), and teacher training. During the intensive preparation period for the new school year, all schools will conduct 8 hours of remote learning training.

Superintendent Jang expressed strong concern over the rapid population decline, with the number of students in Jeonnam currently reduced to about 190,000 and 828 schools closed.

He said, “Population decline is a social problem overall. We have tried various attempts to save small schools in rural fishing villages, but it was insufficient. From now on, unlike before, we will create ‘future-type integrated operation schools’ that integrate small elementary and middle schools in the same village and operate linked elementary and middle school curricula.”

He added, “We will innovate spaces in connection with the government’s ‘Green Smart School’ plan and ecologically reorganize schools to create complex spaces that work with the village. We will create smart classrooms for future education and assign professionals to transform Jeonnam into a cradle of EduTech.”

In particular, he explained, “We have proposed to the President and the Ministry of Education to resolve institutional problems that are major obstacles to operating integrated elementary and middle school curricula, and are cooperating with the National Assembly regarding legal amendments.”

Superintendent Jang said, “Starting in March, we will operate three types?farmhouse, center, and family stay?in 30 small schools in 14 cities and counties in Jeonnam, including Hwasun and Gangjin.” He added, “By the 18th of this month, we will recruit international students in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. In February, international students and their parents will visit the schools and farmhouses they wish to study at and receive explanations. From March, the agricultural and fishing village study abroad program will be operated in earnest. The program will be expanded to all cities and counties in Jeonnam in cooperation with the Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Gwangju Offices of Education.”

He concluded, “COVID-19 has accelerated the era of artificial intelligence digital transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This year, Jeonnam education will realize ‘people-centered education,’ build a robust education system that operates under any crisis, and do its best to become Jeonnam education leading the post-COVID era.”

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