[Letters] Fixing education policy

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[Letters] Fixing education policy

Regarding the April 15 editorial “A season for absurd promises,” I think each party and its regional candidates should do more in-depth research about real problems in the education situation.

First, the free meal issue can’t be the top priority in education policy, because according to an analysis by the School Meal Network of 2009, 13 percent of children included in a low-income group have been already receiving the free meal benefit. The important matter that education superintendent candidates should focus on is scrutinizing the household income first and determining how much they will expand the rate and range of free meals through this intense scrutiny of household income. It is hogwash to pay out the budget for those people who are in higher income brackets.

Moreover, the urgent issue in current education policy is not to provide free meals but to improve educational facilities such as school libraries, auditoriums, gyms and science labs. It is easy to find a lot of students who are studying in a much poorer condition than that of their own homes, even though they’ve been spending most of their day at school.

Finally, each party should propose a plan for saving public education that has been hitting rock bottom. That would include the after-school curriculum to lower the households’ private education expenditures and the regional investment for teacher training programs to enhance their skills and qualities. If these needs of people are disregarded, the blueprints for the education policy would end in failure.


Park Haesook,

Secondary school English teacher, Seoul
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