Govt Education Reform Committee Invites Criticism

The participatory government is now moving fast to form an education reform committee before the planned launch later this month. Yet the plan for a presidential advisory committee is inviting criticism for losing balance in member selection and failing to respect a due process.

President Roh pledged during his presidential campaign last year to form an education reform committee comprising parents` and teachers` organizations, which will develop reform initiatives and deal with education issues. The government, therefore, formed a taskforce in April and has been in preparation for the envisioned committee since then.

▽Lopsided Selection

The taskforce team aimed at building foundation for the committee consists of members who have `identical code` with the government. And it has been pointed out that the ideologically-lopsided body might not be able to accommodate a full spectrum of opinions.

Policy coordination aide at Chong Wae Dae is leading the 13-member taskforce, and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has dispatched 6 staff. Organizations such as the Korea Federation of Teachers Association, however, are against five of the members who they believe ideologically lopsided.

Among the five controversial members are Dr. Lee Jong-tae who ran for the Anyang City mayor as ruling Millennium Democratic Party candidate, Han Man-jung, director at the Civic Coalition for Education Reform who once served as policy director at the government transition committee and the Korea Teachers and Education Workers Union, or KTU, Kim Hyun-joon, teacher at Youngshin High School who served as vice chairman of KTU, Ahn Sun-hee, member of the Parents for Real Education, and Dr. Kim Chan-gyu.

And Jun Sung-eun, principal at Satbyul Middle School in Geochang who was a candidate of Minister of Education, is again being considered head of the new education reform committee.

▽Nothing but Window Dressing

MOEHRD held a public hearing on `future of government education reform` on May 21 to accommodate voices of the education community concerning the setup of reform committee. At the hearing, Lee Jong-tae, one of the taskforce members, delivered a speech about reform tasks and nature of the planned committee.

Instead of giving related information, however, Lee notified that a presidential ordinance would take effect within 7 days, inviting criticism that the hearing was a mere window dressing rather than a part of government opinion-seeking efforts. It is common for the government to give a 20-day notification.

˝The government sometimes choose to shorten the period or forge the process of notification when the law or regulation is not directly related to people`s lives,˝ the ministry explained.

˝While the taskforce is seen as ideologically lopsided, the government is moving to select committee members out of the taskforce,˝ said Yoo Ho-doo, director at the Korea Education Policy Institute. ˝And it has ignored a due process of notification.˝

▽Sprawling Advisory Committee

The envisioned education reform committee will likely have as many members as 200 including members, experts and advisors. The committee is expected to deal with such touchy issues as revision of private school law, law governing teachers and parents organizations and terms of school principals.

˝If a committee suspected of being ideologically lopsided intervenes in decision-making, it will fail to garner support,˝ said Lee Hyun-chung, director-general at the Korea College Education Council who attended the hearing. ˝The committee should aim at take a broader approach and set directions for national education in line with global trends.˝

inchul@donga.com