Seoul Superintendent of Education Candidates Heat Up...'Progress' unifies with a root-and-brain approach

Conservative Single Candidate Cho Jeon-hyuk Criticizes Progressive Party Succession Cho Hee-yeon
Progressive Single Candidate Chung Geun-sik "Conservative Candidate Causes Chaos"

[Anchor]
With early voting for the Seoul Metropolitan Superintendent of Education's by-election taking place from yesterday to today, candidates have been involved in a slugfest at the debate.

In the midst of this, Choi Bo-sun resigned, declaring his support for Chung Geun-sik, who was elected as a single candidate for the progressive camp, and the number of candidates for the Seoul Superintendent of Education was narrowed down to three.

Reporter Kye Hoon-hee's report.

[Reporter]
In fact, this election is a showdown between a single candidate from the conservative and progressive camps.

Conservative candidate Cho Jeon-hyuk has been criticizing Chung Geun-sik and the progressive camp for continuing the policy of former Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon.

[Cho Jeon-hyuk / Single candidate for conservative education in Seoul: Former Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon is guilty. Nevertheless, the so-called candidate of the democratic progressive camp says he will defend this illegality and inherit the policy.]

On the other hand, progressive candidate Chung countered that Cho, who completely denied the process of the past decade, would confuse the educational field.

[Jung Geun-sik / Seoul Superintendent of Education Single Candidate: When I meet citizens these days, I hear concerns first. Both children and teachers are having a hard time, but watching the election of the superintendent of education, I hear that it may become more difficult in the future.The war of nerves continued over the revival of elementary school exams, a key pledge of candidate

.

[Jung Geun-sik / Single candidate for Seoul Superintendent of Education: You said that education is a commodity, and that superintendent of education is a CEO, right? In such a frame, teachers become the ones who produce the products....]

[Cho Jeon-hyuk/ Single candidate for conservative education of Seoul superintendent: The so-called progressive democratic education camp seems to consider it a sin. If you say you're doing a diagnostic test, you treat your children as being abusive....]

Beyond the policy, the personal history of the two candidates has also become the target of each other's attacks.

[Jung Geun-sik / Seoul Superintendent of Education Single Candidate (last 10th): Schools without violence are very important. Moreover, I would like to emphasize that a person with a history of school violence should never be a leader.]

[Cho Jeon Hyuk / Single candidate for Seoul Superintendent of Education: You own a field in Yongin and Iksan. I think it's about 1,000 pyeong. I'd like to ask if you farm in the field. Your son has lived in America for a long time on YouTube and he should think in English....]

Even during the time when they had to discuss other candidate pledges, there were bitter comments when the two focused only on criticism of each other.

[Yun Ho-sang / Seoul Superintendent of Education Candidate: "Who is the superintendent, Dad?" and "Colonial Court justice" are not the core pledges of the superintendent candidate. / What on earth does a superintendent candidate have in his head?]

In the midst of this, progressive candidate Choi Bo-sun, who attended the debate, resigned four days before the by-election and declared his support for candidate Chung.

[Choi Bo-sun / Former candidate for Seoul Superintendent: I dare you to say that only Chung Geun-sik can lead the education of Seoul, so please choose Chung Geun-sik.]

As the progressive camp achieved a complete unification of candidate Chung, the number of candidates for Seoul's superintendent of education was narrowed to three.

However, it is a problem that there is no election atmosphere to select the head of Seoul education.

In 2008, when the Seoul Superintendent of Education held an exclusive election, the turnout was only 15.4%.

Whether it will be a policy election chosen by the voters or a camp election by a small number depends on turnout.

I'm Kye Hoonhee of YTN.