"Education Office Phone Consultations Once Lasting Up to 2 Hours Now Limited to 20 Minutes"

"Ordinance Amendment Establishes Basis for Consultation Time Limits"

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will be the first among all municipal and provincial education offices nationwide to stipulate a "recommended consultation duration" for civil petitioners in its ordinance. This measure aims to prevent disruptions to official duties caused by prolonged phone calls or in-person consultations without legitimate reasons.

On July 13, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it will set the recommended consultation duration for civil petitioners at within 20 minutes through this year’s ordinance amendment. Among the 17 metropolitan and provincial education offices, Seoul is the first to include a recommended consultation duration in its ordinance.

Yonhap News Agency

Until now, the office had addressed "malicious or unusual complaints" through separate internal guidelines, but there have been concerns that it is unclear how to categorize complaints by type. Prolonged calls or repeated complaints about specific issues do not fall under the category of "malicious or unusual complaints," which are defined by abusive or threatening language, making it difficult to properly sanction such cases. In response, the office specified in the ordinance amendment that "if a consultation continues without legitimate reason, the public official in charge may inform the petitioner of the consultation’s conclusion after 15 minutes, and may end the consultation after 20 minutes."

An official at the civil petition consultation office said, "There have been cases where calls lasted up to two hours, raising concerns about decreased administrative efficiency and negative impact on other petitioners," adding, "The significance of this ordinance amendment lies in providing a clear basis for setting a time limit on consultations."

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education plans to make every effort to be selected as the top institution in this year’s "Citizen Happiness Petition Office," a program hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, by improving its civil petition services. After receiving the top grade in last year’s petition service evaluation, the office established the "Seoul-Style Happiness Petition Office Planning and Inspection Team" in May to address shortcomings following its move to a new building and submitted related documentation to the Ministry. Additionally, it became the first among education offices to install a "telecoil zone" for petitioners with hearing difficulties or hearing impairments.

From July 13 to August 2, the office will collect public feedback through the "Gukmin Saenggakham" platform operated by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. The feedback process will proceed in three stages—"Birth of Thought," "Development of Thought," and "Completion of Thought"—and the opinions received will be reflected in future improvements to civil petition services in Seoul’s education sector.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.