An exterior view of the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education. [Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education]
An exterior view of the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education. [Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education]

The Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education announced Tuesday that it will carry out an organizational restructuring effective Jan. 1, 2027 — with some units taking effect March 1, 2027 — to strengthen policy execution, student safety and school support as part of its push to establish Daegu as a global education hub.

The reorganization focuses on redesigning policy functions to reflect changes in the educational environment and the needs of schools, and on systematically realizing the Daegu education vision.

Effective March 1, 2027, a new educational activity protection unit will be established within the elementary education division. The unit expands on the existing educational rights protection center and will be staffed by 12 people, including curriculum supervisors, attorneys, safety support officers and counselors.

The unit will handle legal support for teachers facing child abuse reports, school complaint responses, and prevention of infringements on teaching activities and teacher rights. The teacher safety support officer program will launch with two officers on Nov. 1 and expand to four next March.

The temporary Future Schools Task Force will be dissolved and reorganized into a school space division with three units covering space planning, property management and private school facilities. The restructuring consolidates a fragmented support system for educational spaces to improve the professionalism and efficiency of school facility management.

To strengthen student safety, the general safety division will be renamed the education safety division and will gain a new commuting safety unit. The unit will oversee school commute routes, traffic safety, school CCTV systems, school security guards and safety notification services, and will also coordinate measures to prevent kidnapping and abduction.

Staffing for the division will increase from 18 to 20, shifting the focus of safety management from post-incident response to prevention.

The Future Education Research Institute will be reorganized around AI-based student assessment innovation, the training of assessment specialists, the development and distribution of the Daegu Future Competency Curriculum, and digital infrastructure support for schools. The institute will also strengthen its framework for implementing KB — the Korean Baccalaureate — including building an AI-based platform for written, essay and oral assessments and supporting absolute grading systems.

The names of directly affiliated institutions will also be updated to better reflect their functions. The Daegu Student Culture Center will be renamed the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education Culture and Arts Center, and the Daegu School Support Center will become the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education School Cooperation Center. The office plans to strengthen arts education and student arts activity support, and to expand communication with schools and demand-based support systems.

"We will build a substantive education administration where students and teachers can feel the changes in education firsthand, actively responding to evolving demands in AI-based future education, protection of teaching activities, student safety, future learning spaces and school support," Daegu Superintendent of Education Kang Eun-hee said.


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com