Sejong education officials face teacher protection gaps and budget cuts

The Sejong Teachers' Union released survey results marking the 100th day of Superintendent Kang Mi-ae's term, revealing significant gaps in teacher protection policies. Out of 471 surveyed educators, 59% reported experiencing infringements on educational activities within the last three years. Notably, 70.6% of those affected felt that existing Office of Education policies failed to provide practical protection. The survey highlighted issues such as low awareness of support systems, inadequate school-level responses, and the lack of official channels to redirect malicious complaints away from individual teachers.

In a separate development, Superintendent Kang Mi-ae addressed the Sejong City Council's decision to cut the entire 19.6 billion won budget for the ‘Global Career Exploration Team’ project. The project, a key campaign promise aimed at providing 5,400 middle school students with domestic and international industry tours, was rejected by the Education and Safety Committee due to concerns over high opportunity costs and lack of differentiation from existing programs. Kang expressed regret over the lack of preparation and pledged to refine the program through public hearings and field research to ensure its viability for future implementation.