[Editorial] Yet Another Cabinet Shakeup

Following Minister of Finance and Economy Han Duck-soo, Minister of Education and Human Resources Development Kim Jin-pyo tendered his resignation yesterday. A minor cabinet reshuffle is expected in the next week at the earliest with the replacement of the minister of Budget and Planning and the chief presidential secretary for national policy. It is reported that Cheong Wa Dae had already named the successors. Whoever takes the posts should be far from those named for personal connections with the president, and make up for the government’s past policy failures.

Still, concerns abound. Education Minister Kim has played a key role in undercutting the nation’s educational competitiveness by imbuing the obsolete egalitarian ideology of President Roh Moo-hyun and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTEWU) into public school education. The situation is not likely to be improved even though another person succeeds his position.

Kim pushed for a school grade-oriented college admissions policy that has no respect for the performance gap between different schools. Though he encouraged her daughter to graduate from a foreign language high school, major in economics, and go to a U.S.-based graduate school, Kim imposed restrictions on foreign language high schools’ student admission, opposed the expansion of independently run high schools and the idea of the so-called “international middle school” running special curricula for nurturing 21st century leaders, and thereby sped up the dumbing-down of overall secondary education.

Yesterday’s announcement of the pending legislation, which bans making public students’ academic achievements at each school, or in each area, was what KTEWU has doggedly insisted on. If each school reveals students’ performances, this would stimulate competition and thus raise the academic levels of many schools. However, Kim surrendered the nation’s education to the teachers’ union.

Kim’s resignation was expected to put an end to this outdated education model, but his replacement, Kim Byeong-joon, former presidential secretary for national policy, concerns the public no less than former minister Kim. Policies put forward by the former secretary to curb rising real estate prices, promote a balanced national development and government innovation, and ease social polarization ended up lowering the living standards of all Koreans. It would not be too much to say that he might come up with an idea of de-ranking public universities by abolishing entrance exams.

This paper urged the government to overhaul the presidential economic advisory panel after its abysmal defeat in the May 31 local elections. The Korean economy during the latter half of this year would fare worse than in the first half.

Both the business survey index and consumer confidence index are on the decline. A strong growth policy is urgent in order to revitalize the economy and to ensure better lives for Korean people.

Succeeding finance and economy minister material ought to be someone who knows the market economy well, and who can raise issues with the president on his distribution and equality-centered approach. Everything should be reexamined, including the slack management of government budget, double taxation, controlling and threatening real estate policies, and anachronistic “balanced development” strategy.

It is doubtful if the new Finance Economy Minister can successfully deal with these issues. The clock is ticking for the incumbent government. Hopefully, the succeeding minister will carry out policies with firm conviction and determination.