One notable result of the June 4 local elections was the sweeping victory of liberal candidates in the education superintendent races. They emerged triumphant in 13 of the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces, assuming responsibility for the education of more than 80 percent of the nation’s 7.2 million children from kindergarten to high school.

Conservative candidates carried only three metropolitan cities of Daegu, Ulsan and Daejeon plus North Gyeongsang Province, a sharp contrast to four years ago when they won 10 of the 16 seats up for grabs. 

The overwhelming victory of liberal candidates, however, was not the result of their educational policies winning endorsement from a large majority of voters. It was rather because of conservative candidates’ inability to get their act together.

In Korea, the election rule bans political parties from nominating superintendent candidates, the rationale being the separation of education from politics. As a result, superintendent races have tended to be crowded with candidates from both conservative and liberal camps.

In Wednesday’s elections, liberal candidates managed to unify candidacies in most of the contests, while conservative candidates largely failed to do so. There is little wonder why the liberal camp won a landslide victory.

A typical example was the race in Busan. The single liberal candidate garnered only about 35 percent of the votes but could easily win because the remaining votes were split among six conservative candidates. The combined votes of the first and second runners-up alone were much larger than the winner’s.

The Seoul contest offered another example. Until a few days before election day, the single liberal contender hopelessly trailed two conservative candidates. But the two frontrunners got embroiled in mudslinging, alienating conservative voters and ultimately paving the way for the third-placed liberal candidate to carry the day.

For whatever reason, liberal superintendents are now in charge in three-fourths of the nation’s metropolitan cities and provinces. And this outcome is taken seriously by conservative parents as it signals a turn to the left in the nation’s education policy.

The change in direction is likely to be fraught with ideological conflict between the liberal education chiefs and the conservative central government, with students and their parents suffering the consequences.

In Korea, education superintendents are vested with extensive powers, so much so that they are called “educational presidents.” They control the budgets of their education offices, which amount to trillions of won a year. The annual budget of the Educational Office of Gyeonggi Province, for instance, exceeds 11 trillion won, about 70 percent of the provincial government’s budget of 16 trillion won.

Education chiefs also have the authority to establish or abolish schools, reshuffle teachers and other educational officials, determine the method of selecting students for high schools, and oversee school operations.

The 13 newly elected superintendents are determined to exercise their powers to transform the nation’s educational landscape. Last month, they unveiled a common election manifesto, demonstrating their resolve to work together to change the direction of the government’s educational policy.

The manifesto included two proposals that are likely to trigger a heated debate. One calls for gradual abolition of autonomous private high schools while the other proposes to expand so-called innovation schools.

Autonomous high schools enjoy greater autonomy than ordinary schools in curriculum development and other matters, as they do not receive subsidies from the government. To finance school operations, they collect tuition fees up to three times higher than those of ordinary schools.

These private schools were first established in 2010 under the government’s school diversification program. They were intended to respect the rights of students and parents to choose schools, meet students’ diverse needs and improve the nation’s educational competitiveness.

But the liberal superintendents view these schools as institutions only for the rich, which not only disrupt public education but aggravate social and economic inequality. They attack them for focusing only on college entrance examinations just like ordinary schools, deviating from the primary purpose of their establishment.

So they intend to convert autonomous schools into ordinary schools if they fail to meet any of the requirements for certification. Currently evaluations for recertification are underway for 25 of the 49 such schools across the nation, with the outcome to be announced in August.

But the liberal education bosses’ plan clashes with the government’s policy to foster autonomous schools. The government views them as serving the purpose of diversifying high schools and raising the standards of secondary education in Korea.

Under the law, education superintendents are required to consult the Ministry of Education before deciding not to renew autonomous school designations.

While seeking to close or reduce the number of autonomous schools and other elitist institutions, the liberal superintendents want to expand “innovation schools,” institutions that they see as “the future of Korean education.”

These schools are intended to address such chronic problems in Korean education as excessive competition among students, test-oriented teaching, emphasis on rote memorization and disregard for students’ character and creativity.

Innovation schools focus on cultivating well-rounded, creative students and fostering cooperation instead of competition among them. Teachers use debates, essay writing and other methods to help students study and have diverse experiences without worrying about hell-like exams. There are 488 such schools nationwide.

While liberals say innovation schools hold promise for Korean education, the government is far from enthusiastic about expanding them because they tend to produce children with poor academic performance.

The annual national academic achievement evaluations show that innovation schools significantly underperform ordinary ones in terms of improvement in students’ scholastic achievements. One reason is their disregard for academic excellence.

Many conservative parents regard these schools as havens for left-wing teachers as many of their teachers are members of the progressive Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union. These teachers are accused of instilling leftist ideologies into children.

While innovation schools are well intended, they cannot be seen as the right solution to the problems of Korean education, as long as they lack a culture of academic excellence. Schools should not ignore students’ scholastic achievement in the name of making their lives less stressful.

There are other areas where the liberal superintendents are likely to differ from the government. For instance, they are planning to expand the free lunch program and introduce other free welfare services for students, which the government opposes for budgetary reasons.

There is no disputing that Korean education needs reform. But in pushing for their reform agenda, the progressive-minded superintendents should bear in mind that they were elected not because their plans were particularly appealing to voters but because of the absurdity and greed of conservative candidates. They should promote reform without forgetting that in most of the regions, people opposed to their programs still constitute a majority. 

By Yu Kun-ha

Yu Kun-ha is chief editorial writer of The Korea Herald. He can be reached at khyu@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.