(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Oh Bo-ram = The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, which proposed amending the law to allow each school to assign a dedicated basic education teacher, was found to have not assigned a single dedicated teacher for two consecutive years.
Nationwide, it was found that there is a large gap in support by region, with one in five schools operating a basic education teacher system not allocating even a penny to operating expenses.
On the 12th, Kang Gyeong-sook, a member of the National Assembly Education Committee, and the Good Teachers Movement analyzed the status of the basic education teacher system for the 2026 school year in provincial and provincial offices of education across the country. As a result, 15 places excluding Seoul and Busan (separate counts in Gwangju and Jeonnam) were found to have assigned teachers who are regular teachers.
Of the six offices of education, including Gyeonggi, Daegu, Sejong, Incheon, Jeju, and Seoul, that did not operate the system last year, five, excluding Seoul, introduced or restarted the system this year.
There were 613 elementary schools nationwide that operated a dedicated teacher system, and the number of dedicated personnel assigned to elementary and middle schools was 674. Among them, there were 653 full-time teachers with teacher status.
However, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education did not assign a dedicated teacher this year as it did last year.
In October last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education proposed amending the Basic Education Guarantee Act to allow for the deployment of at least one basic education expert teacher per school.
Guaranteeing basic academic ability is also a key pledge that Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik made while running for re-election.
Despite this, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education only answered ‘none’ whether the dedicated teacher system would be operated in response to a request for data from the lawmaker’s office ahead of this year’s government audit, and did not provide a reason for not introducing it.
It was found that the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education also did not assign dedicated basic education teachers who are regular teachers.
However, the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it is currently operating 417 basic academic support instructors in all elementary schools, and plans to secure a separate quota starting from the 2027 school year to deploy full-time dedicated teachers.
The budget gap between offices of education that operate the dedicated teacher system was also large.
Among the 15 offices of education, five, including Gyeongbuk, Daegu, Daejeon, Sejong, and Jeju, did not allocate independent project expenses for the dedicated teacher system or were diverting budgets for other projects.
There were 150 schools in this category, accounting for 24% of all operating schools.
In particular, 113 schools (18%) in the Gyeongbuk, Sejong, and Jeju regions had no dedicated teacher system operating expenses allocated at all.
Even when comparing schools that receive support for operating expenses, the budget per school differed by about 38 times, from a maximum of 6.77 million won to a minimum of 180,000 won.
In the case of the Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education, operating expenses, which were 3 million won per school in 2023 and 2024, were reduced to 180,000 won this year.
Among the offices of education that have operated the dedicated teacher system without interruption since 2023, only one in South Chungcheong Province saw an increase in the budget per school.
The fact that the duties of dedicated teachers were not clearly defined was also pointed out as a problem.
Seven out of 15 education offices had no regulations restricting teachers from taking on other duties other than basic education.
Rep. Kang and the Good Teacher Movement urged the Ministry of Education to establish guidelines for the operation of dedicated basic education teachers and stipulate the minimum operating cost per school, the scope of work of dedicated teachers, and the number of teaching hours per week.
They also pointed out that with an additional support of about 470 million won to 331 schools nationwide, operating expenses of at least 2 million won can be guaranteed to all operating schools, and that the problem is the absence of support standards rather than a lack of budget.
In addition, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education was requested to disclose the size and timing of the deployment of dedicated teachers for the 2027 school year and whether the related budget has been allocated.
An official from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education explained, "Seoul has recently had a difficult time securing additional seats due to a drastic reduction in the number of teachers," adding, "Currently, all schools are appointing 'learning support teachers' (instead of dedicated basic education teachers)."
In addition, he said, "In the 2027 school year, we plan to place 34 specialized teachers in basic academic skills first in elementary schools, and gradually expand the number of specialized teachers in basic academic skills in accordance with the allocation criteria of the Ministry of Education in the future."
