Gwangju KTU Branch Condemns City Education Office Personnel Moves That Ignore Expansion of Internal Open Recruitment System

원본보기 아이콘

The Gwangju branch of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union condemned the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education for bypassing schools in its personnel appointments and for lacking any will to expand the internal open recruitment system for principals.

The Gwangju branch of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union issued a statement on the 5th, saying, "The internal open recruitment system for principals is a core system of 'school autonomy' that elects principals with democratic leadership through screening and recommendation by school members, instead of the existing score-based promotion system," and added, "Through the regular personnel appointments announced by the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education on the 3rd, we confirmed that the office has rendered the purpose of this system meaningless, has no intention whatsoever of expanding it, and has even ignored the most basic administrative procedures."

They pointed out, "The essence of the recent failure to appoint an open-recruited principal at K Elementary School shows that the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education has no intention of expanding the internal open recruitment system for principals," and added, "The fact that all candidates recommended by school members through legitimate procedures were given failing ('unqualified') grades in the second screening shows that there is no intention to activate this system."

They continued, "The education office deleted the procedure for 'gathering school opinions' from its own guidelines. According to the Ministry of Education's manual on the 'Plan to Implement the Open Recruitment System for Principals,' if there is no suitable candidate, the education office must comprehensively review the opinions and various circumstances of the school in question before deciding whether to withdraw the designation or push forward again," and added, "However, when drawing up its own detailed implementation plan, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education deleted this key provision of listening to the school's opinion. Instead, it left only the wording that the superintendent of education will withdraw the designation of the school in that year, thereby fundamentally blocking the process of hearing the voices of school members and opening the way for the superintendent to unilaterally nullify the open recruitment."

They further stated, "The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education must stop neutralizing the internal open recruitment system for principals and expand the open recruitment system for principals," and added, "It should apologize for unilaterally enforcing personnel appointments in disregard of the Ministry of Education's guideline on 'comprehensive review of school opinions' and guarantee the autonomy of schools."

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.