Proposal voices concern about 'deterioration of education environment', leading to criticism that the office abandoned fairness

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education sent a letter to the Seoul Metropolitan Government to urge it to review plans to construct public housing in the Gangnam district in May, saying that the "educational environment would deteriorate with an increase in students from low-income families." Educational organizations strongly criticized the letter as going against the office's duty to promote a fair educational structure.

On May 19, the city education office sent the letter, written in the name of Education Superintendent Kong Jeong-taek, to the city government and the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs to urge the city to review the project, which involves the construction of rental apartments for the underprivileged in the Suseo neighborhood of the Gangnam district.

The education office wrote, "About 29 percent of the students in Suseo-dong are from families that receive the government's livelihood subsidy. If public rental housing is built in this area, the educational environment will deteriorate because of an increase in the number of such students. Conflicts could occur among the students' parents because they will refuse to send their children to schools in the area."

The Seoul city official who received the document said that the education office, which should improve education, is demanding a situation that runs counter to it. He added that the document is not worth mentioning and public rental housing will be constructed as scheduled.

Educational organizations are also critical of the letter, saying that the city education office is siding with the wealthy. Park Gyeong-hyeon, the chairman of the Korea Association of School Social Workers, remarked, "Kong's pledge to ease the disparity in education was just rhetoric. He is like other wealthy people in Gangnam who want to keep a hold on the area by closing it off to the poor."

Kim Jin-u, an education activist, criticized Gong, saying that public education should improve educational conditions so that students from low-income families can study more comfortably. However, Kong has declared that he will only educate people in the nation's top one percent, Kim added.

In response, the educational office said, "We aren't opposed to the construction of public rental housing in the Gangnam area. We just made the proposal in consideration of residents in the area who worry that the educational environment could get worse if there is an influx of students from low-income families."

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Source: english.hani.co.kr