Incheon Superintendent Do Seong-hun meets National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik

Raises concerns over growing student numbers in new towns and shortage of special education, librarian teachers

Do warns against 'uniform fiscal cuts that ignore Incheon's reality'

Incheon Metropolitan City Superintendent of Education Do Seong-hun (third from left) and fellow members of the Korean Superintendents Association pose for a photo after meeting with National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik on Monday. [Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education]
Incheon Metropolitan City Superintendent of Education Do Seong-hun (third from left) and fellow members of the Korean Superintendents Association pose for a photo after meeting with National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik on Monday. [Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education]

Incheon Metropolitan City Superintendent of Education Do Seong-hun has called on the National Assembly to scrutinize the government's push to reduce local education funding, warning that the plan fails to account for the realities facing new towns where student enrollment continues to grow and school facilities are aging.

Do met with National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik on Monday at the Speaker's office, joined by fellow superintendents from the Korean Superintendents Association.

The meeting was arranged to highlight the potential impact on elementary and secondary education of the government's proposed revision to the Local Education Finance Grant Act, and to discuss ways to secure stable funding.

Do said the government's plan to cut education budgets based solely on a nationwide decline in the school-age population "differs greatly from the actual educational environment in Incheon."

He particularly stressed that the number of middle and high school students in newly developed areas of Incheon — including Geomdan new town — continues to grow, sustaining demand for new school construction to ease overcrowded classrooms.

Reducing budgets based on enrollment-decline statistics alone, he said, risks infringing on the right to education of students in new towns.

Do also described a shortage of personnel in schools across the city.

"As the number of students requiring special education increases, we have been filling positions mainly with temporary contract teachers, but even that is hitting a ceiling due to staffing limits," he said. "At a time when reading proficiency is increasingly emphasized, the placement of librarian teachers at schools is woefully inadequate."

He added that a large number of school buildings in Incheon are more than 40 years old, making sustained investment in facility upgrades urgently necessary to provide students with a safe and comfortable learning environment.

The meeting also drew superintendents from across the country, including Korean Superintendents Association President Jeong Geun-sik of Seoul and the superintendents of North Chungcheong Province, South Gyeongsang Province, Daegu, Ulsan and Sejong.

The government submitted a partial amendment to the Local Education Finance Grant Act in September and announced plans to designate it as a revenue budget companion bill for fiscal year 2027.

The association warned that the amendment, drafted without sufficient prior consultation with metropolitan and provincial education offices, could undermine the financial foundation of elementary and secondary education.

"Nurturing talent is the most reliable investment in the nation's future," Do said. "I ask the National Assembly to take a close look at the unique circumstances on the ground when deliberating on education funding, so that Incheon's children can be given a solid educational foundation to prepare for the future."


gilbert@heraldcorp.com