The court decided on the 18th that it was illegal for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to cancel the designation of an autonomous private high school (self-accident) for taxation and distribution. The photo shows Sehwa High School in Banpo, Seocho-gu, Seoul. yunhap news
On the 18th, when the first trial court ruling to maintain the status of autonomous private high schools (self-accident) of Baejae High School and Sehwa High School in Seoul came out, officials from own high schools criticized the education authorities at once. They raised their voices, saying, “The decision made by the progressive superintendents to kill the education system in the morning according to the ideology made the school scene uneasy.” Other private high schools are also facing rulings, and the purpose of the ruling was consistently’unreasonable cancellation’. Interest is focused on whether or not they survive.
After the ruling, Sehwa High School Vice-Principal Park Ki-hyuk said, “Even though our school was able to pass enough, we have fully clarified to the court that we did not give the score for the purpose of eliminating our own high school.” The Seoul Jasa High School Principals Association also said, “It was reaffirmed that the fact that the educational authorities used the evaluation of school operation performance as a means to abolish their own high school was wrong.” “Today’s ruling is the result of confirming that Korea is still an educational statutory state,” said Kim Cheol-gyeong, president of the Federation.
The start of this lawsuit began when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education canceled the designation of eight schools in Kyunghee High School, Baejae High School, Sehwa High School, Sungmun High School, Shinil High School, Lee Daebu High School, Joongang High School, and Handaebu High School in the evaluation of redesignation of their own high school in 2019. This was the result of reflecting the government’s policy stance to eliminate special high schools. Private high schools opposed this and filed a lawsuit in the court at once.
This ruling was also an expected result. Haeundae High School, whose designation was canceled by the Busan City Office of Education, was awarded a ruling in December last year. Similar to the Busan ruling, this ruling is intended to not change the evaluation criteria to cancel its own high school. As Bae Jae-go and Sehwa High have won, the remaining six private high schools that are in the process of litigation are likely to easily win. The sentence of the first trial of Sungmun High School and Shinil High School is scheduled for the 23rd of next month. The rest of the schools are also sentenced.
The controversy over the existence of own treasury is expected to continue for a while. Regardless of this ruling, the current government revised the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and decided to replace all foreign language high schools, international high schools, and self-accidents with general high schools by 2025. Even if all private high schools win, they will eventually be converted to regular high schools in 2025.
However, 24 schools in the metropolitan area, including private high schools and international high schools, have filed constitutional petitions last year against the policy of the Ministry of Education. Only when this result comes out, it is expected that a final conclusion will be made whether the company will exist or not. The Federation of Private High Schools said, “The Ministry of Education should switch to a policy that actively supports its own high schools so that they can devote their fullest power to fostering global talent,” and demanded that “immediately stop enforcing the policy to abolish private high schools in 2025.”
Seoul Superintendent Jo Hee-yeon expressed a strong dissatisfaction, saying, “We cannot help but express our regret for this ruling, which is a core educational policy of the Moon Jae-in administration, which disregards the civic aspirations for normalization of high school.” The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education immediately appealed and said, “We will find a joint response plan in consultation with Busan, Gyeonggi Province and the Ministry of Education.”
Yunju Lee reporter [email protected]
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