"Thinking about wrapping my head up every day" Gyeonggi Education Commission Chairman seeks a third path that combines student human rights and school rights protection

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]
□ Broadcast Date: 31st October, 2024 (Thursday)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Lee Ae-hyung, Chairman of the Education Administration Committee, Gyeonggi-do Council

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): It's time to live alone wisely. It's time to find out what the local council is doing to make our neighborhood a good place to live. Today, I will call Lee Ae-hyung, a member of the Gyeonggi-do Provincial Council who is the chairman of the Gyeonggi-do Provincial Council's Education and Administration Committee. Hello, Senator.

◇Lee Ae-hyung, Chairman of the Gyeonggi-do Council's Education Administration Committee (hereinafter referred to as Lee Ae-hyung): Yes, hello.

◆Park Gui-bin: Could you say hello to the listeners of wise radio life and the residents of the province first?

◇Brother Lee: Yes, hello. Let's say hello. I am Lee Ae-hyung, chairman of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council's Education and Administration Committee, whose constituencies are Seryu 123-dong and Gwonseon 1-dong in Suwon Special City. Thank you for inviting me today.

◆Park Gui-bin: Yes, Senator, how have you been? I think we greeted you in our program in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year, he was the chairman of the Board of Education and Administration. I think you will be busier in the second half of the year, but how did you feel about the second half as the chairman of the Education Administration Committee?

◇ Lee Ae-hyung: Yes, I really want to create a committee where each member of our committee can fully demonstrate the capabilities of each member as much as they believe in me and entrust me with important responsibilities. So, as a truly open forum for public debate, our Education Administration Committee is pledging to do my best at the center of making Gyeonggi education happy for all of our curriculum by faithfully collecting the voices of the people.

◆Park Gui-bin: Yes, there is the Education Administration Committee and the Education Planning Committee within the Gyeonggi-do Council. Senator, what's the difference?

◇Lee Ae-hyung: There are so many things that we have to deal with in education that we can't look closely to go to one committee. So we arbitrarily divided the committee into two. To briefly explain the difference between the roles of the two standing committees, the Board of Education is in charge of our pure education, including the curriculum, and our Board of Education deals with creating an environment surrounding the operation of the curriculum so that it can operate smoothly. It's easy to understand if you compare it to school. It can be said that the Education Planning Committee often deals with the work related to the teacher's office, and the Education Administration Committee deals with the work related to the administrative office. For example, what the Education Administration Committee does is now under the jurisdiction of the Education Administration Committee to deal with various support surrounding education such as school establishment, school district allocation, school facility management, free school uniforms for various facilities, character education, lifelong education, and school welfare.

◆Park Gui-bin: Then the chairman should look at all those areas in general, right?

◇ Lee Ae-hyung: That's right. There's only one overall training anyway.

◆Park Gui-bin: That's right. I think you have no choice but to pay more attention to current issues in the education community. What value goals do you think the chairman has in mind when it comes to education policy?

◇Lee Ae-hyung: Gyeonggi-do Province has the largest number of students in the country, so in fact, accidents are also the largest in the country. So there are a lot of pending issues to look at accordingly. As you can see in this parliamentary audit, it has been dealt with a lot. Many issues such as school violence, deepfake, and the abolition of sex education books have been dealt with. These issues are all under the jurisdiction of our standing committee. So, I am also frequently briefed on this part and trying to handle the work as much as possible so that it does not violate the principles. After all, the Office of Education or the school is an institution that exists for students. So, keeping in mind that the center of education lies with students, we are constantly trying to look at and guide educational administration from the perspective of students. Through this, we are doing our best to support our Gyeonggi education to establish itself as a space full of dreams and hopes again.

◆Park Gui-bin: The chairman of the committee told you about the goal, so what strategy are you planning in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year to achieve that goal?

◇Lee Ae-hyung: In the first half of the year, the Board of Education and Administration did its best for Gyeonggi education. The members of the committee worked hard in the first half of that year, so I thought first that our second half of the Education Administration Committee should be as good as the first half. Nevertheless, in the first half of the year, we changed our new superintendent from a progressive superintendent to a conservative superintendent. At the same time, there was some friction with the parliament because we could not communicate with each other because we did not fully understand the new superintendent's educational philosophy or policy. But now we're in our third year. So I think it's time for the executive branch and the Office of Education's executive branch and the Congress to properly explain the stable education policy to the citizens of the province. So, fortunately, most of the lawmakers who make up the Education Administration Committee for the second half of the year now have 14, and 11 of them have already passed the Board of Education once. That's why we promise to do our best to make sure that the Education Administration Committee is really struggling with education centered on students to the residents of the province.

◆Park Gui-bin: Yes, Gyeonggi-do Superintendent Lim Tae-hee is also implementing various policies while presenting a new vision for Gyeonggi education. Among them, I know that the direction of the biggest education policy is IB education. So could you please explain a little bit about what IB education is? How do you see this?

◇Brother: We all went to school. However, I have both good and bad memories of school education, but I don't think many people think school education is the best right now. I'm sure you're feeling the need for a change in education because society has changed in some way. Superintendent Lim Tae-hee also thought about various ways to change education, thinking that education should change. I understand that what I found in the process was IB education. IB education is unfamiliar to me and the listeners may be unfamiliar, but in fact, it has already been established in Europe since the 1960s and has been recognized to some extent. And many schools around the world are already adopting it. Looking at the foreign cases that have been operated so far, it has been operated with a focus on fostering international talents with international literacy with critical thinking skills and creativity. Therefore, the Gyeonggi-do Office of Education is personally unfamiliar with expanding IB education, but I accept it as a fresh challenge. However, the reality of our education is different from that of Europe. There's something that's only a little depressed about going to a higher school. And parents also seem to be very concerned that introducing a new curriculum would harm their children's entrance exams. That's why we're also looking at it carefully. Even though our society says we need to prepare for the future, it seems that we still can't give up our education-oriented thinking. I think it's very meaningful for us to go to globalization by introducing a pilot system in some schools, as the Gyeonggi-do Office of Education has advocated a new paradigm of education after much consideration.

◆Park Gui-bin: Have you talked a lot with Superintendent Lim Tae-hee?

◇ Lee Ae-hyung: We're sharing a lot. Our superintendent Lim Tae-hee is very close to our office of education and our parliament. From my room to Superintendent Lim Tae-hee's room, it's about 200m straight. We also have two separate communication committees. We are preparing to communicate frequently with Chairman Ahn Kwang-ryul and me, and to have regular meetings with Superintendent Lim Tae-hee.

◆Park Gwibin: I see. The biggest issue in the first half of the year was the Student Human Rights Ordinance. So, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education's ordinance on student human rights and the ordinance on the protection of school rights, but I know that it didn't come to a conclusion in the first half of this. What do you have in mind? Current

◇ Lee Ae-hyung: He didn't give me a conclusion and I became the chairman of the administrative committee and he handed it over to me.

◆Park Gui Bin: What are you going to do?

◇Lee Ae-hyung: It seems that the deliberation has been put on hold with such a view even from a political perspective as various misunderstandings and prejudices have been mixed around the ordinance on the rights and responsibilities of school members. But first, if you look at the proposal of the Office of Education, it was premised on the abolition of the Student Human Rights Ordinance and the School Rights Protection Ordinance. Practically speaking, it seems that we wanted to prevent this because student human rights and teaching rights can sometimes be in conflict, but I think this dichotomous approach is fundamentally problematic. Naturally, the abolition of the student human rights ordinance seems to be a retreat of student human rights, and the abolition of the school rights protection ordinance can be seen as a retreat of school rights. It's about getting rid of what's there, but I think both ordinances are well worth existing. In addition, I also agree that responsibility should follow as much as there is a right. With those two ordinances in existence, I am considering a third way to define the desirable relationship between students and school authority. As all members of our committee agree on this point, we are now putting our heads together to communicate with the members of the committee and take a closer look and solve it wisely.

◆Park Gui-bin: There is a mandatory question we ask the lawmakers of Gyeonggi-do Province, and this is something I must ask. The masterpiece of my life. What kind of song is your representative's song?

◇ Lee Ae-hyung: My whole family is tone-deaf. Nevertheless, there's a song that I sometimes hum. "I want to draw a circle." These days, it's autumn, so there are a lot of people who want to see it. My father, who passed away 30 years ago, and my friends who were with me in school were drawing circles with this song. At the same time, I'm thinking of people I miss in those days. When I asked this question, I thought I should draw a circle while listening to this song. That's what I thought.

◆Park Gui-bin: I see. The song "Face" is a masterpiece of my life, and I'll tell you about your song soon. This singer married her first love 30 years after the song was released. I hope everyone who listens to this song will meet the person they want to see, and I'll tell you your masterpiece soon. Thank you for your words today.

◇Brother Lee: Yes, thank you.

◆Park Gui-bin: Until now, Lee Ae-hyung, chairman of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council's Education and Administration Committee, was a member of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council.