Assemblyman Lee Younghoon: "Western Office of Education Overloaded... Urgent Need to Establish Gwangsan Office of Education Support"

400 Million Won in Equipment Left Unused; 60 Million Won in Public School Property Goes Missing
Also Flags Poor Staffing Conditions at Small Schools in Jeonnam

Assemblyman Lee Younghoon (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangsan-gu District 3) criticized the excessive workload at the Western Office of Education Support during an administrative audit of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City Office of Education on November 13. He again urged the swift establishment of a Gwangsan Office of Education Support, while also sharply criticizing the education office for wasting its budget and poorly managing supplies.

“The Western Office of Education Support currently oversees Seo-gu, Nam-gu, and Gwangsan-gu, serving a population of 900,000 and 112,000 students,” Lee said. “Administrative demands, including cases of school violence and suicide, are surging, and the limits of the current organizational structure are clear.”

Lee Younghoon, member of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City Council.

He emphasized that “Gwangsan-gu is expected to see the largest population growth in the future, with semiconductor industrial complex tenants moving in,” and called for the establishment of a Gwangsan Office of Education Support and an expanded division of responsibilities to be included proactively starting with the research service in July, ahead of the 2028 organizational reorganization.

Lee also criticized the inadequate administrative audit materials and the waste of taxpayers’ money. “Equipment purchased with a budget of more than 400 million won has been left unused for three years, yet the department in charge submitted inadequate materials without even knowing the situation,” he said.

He also cited an ongoing police investigation into 16 items of shared school equipment worth a total of 68.95 million won—including tablet PCs, coding teaching aids, and robots—that were removed without authorization or lost. “There are serious gaps in the management of public assets acquired for student education,” he said, calling for strict punishment and measures to prevent a recurrence.

Lee also highlighted the poor staffing conditions at small schools in Jeonnam. “Because one teacher often has to set exam questions for multiple subjects or grade levels, errors and questions with no correct answer occur, and the rate of retests at middle and high schools is not declining,” he said. He called for better follow-up management and improvements to the exam-setting system to ensure that students in Jeonnam, where school grades are important, are not disadvantaged.

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