Opposition party member blasts collapse of public education at interpellation

Opposition Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers scolded the government for a worrisome phenomenon of the public educational collapse during an interpellation of the administration in a National Assembly plenary session, Thursday. Rep. Chung Moon-Hwa of GNP argued, ``The third graders of high school who believed in the words (of the government) that they can enter the university, if they do well in one field, are disgraced now as the high school seniors with the lowest scholastic ability in the nation`s education history.`` He said, ``With the collapse of the public education, parents` private education expenses exceeded as much as 7 trillion won last year, and the number of people emigrating abroad for the education of their children is increasing.``

The Assembly interpellation session witnessed a fierce war of words between the rival party lawmakers over the near-bankruptcy of health insurance finance, tax investigation of media companies and maladministration of the local autonomy. Rep. Cho Hee-Wook of the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) claimed that the time has matured to allow the university entrance through donation in order to better the educational circumstances. He also asked if the government intends to strengthen the education of history to raise the self-independence spirit of the people and their understanding of history. Rep. You Jae-Kyu of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) said that the government should make efforts to normalize the public education by empowering principals to manage all the school affairs, including the introduction of extra-curricular classes. He also urged the government to foster local colleges as prestigious ones by making bold investments in them.

[Yonhap]