Ministry of Education "Allow approval of voluntary leave of absence from university"...Will the launch of the consultative body gain momentum?

[Anchor]
The Ministry of Education has decided to leave medical students with the approval of leave of absence to the university's autonomy.

The government decided to take a step back from the existing policy and accept the suggestions of medical organizations and university presidents.

As the prerequisites have been resolved, attention is being paid to whether the launch of the ruling and opposition parties' political consultative body will gain momentum in the future.

I'm reporter Yeom Hye-won.

[Reporter]
The Ministry of Education has withdrawn its existing policy of approving conditional leave of absence.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho held a private meeting with presidents of 40 universities nationwide that run medical schools,

has announced that it will leave the university's autonomy to approve medical students' leave of absence.

He has taken a step back from his previous position of proving that he is not taking a leave of absence from alliance and approving it on the premise of returning to the first semester of next year.

Earlier, the presidents of national universities in their base proposed unconditional approval of leave of absence, saying that if this continues, they are concerned about large-scale paid and expulsion.

With the Ministry of Education accepting this, medical students will now be able to return to their existing grades next year after being recognized for taking a leave of absence for the first and second semesters of this year.

However, many medical school regulations currently prohibit students from taking a leave of absence for more than two consecutive semesters, so most of them have to return in the first semester of next year.

The government hopes the move will give momentum to the launch of the ruling and opposition parties' political consultative body.

This is because the prerequisites set forth by the Korean Medical Association, the Korean Medical University, and the Medical Graduate Association have been resolved.

However, the medical community's response is still sour.

The medical students, who are involved in the matter, say nothing has changed.

The Ministry of Education said that it was natural to approve the leave of absence, which was originally legally paid.

It reaffirmed its existing position that it would not return unless the issue of medical school reinforcement was resolved.

Kang Hee-kyung, chairman of the emergency committee of professors at Seoul Medical University and Seoul National University Hospital, also predicted that the government would not have the momentum for students to return to school on its own, saying that the government recognized the leave of absence for fear of legal disputes.

Attention is focusing on how the government's decision to take a step back will affect resolving the twisted legislative conflict.

I'm Yum Hyewon of YTN.

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