Sookyong Nam
Professor of Educational Management- College of Education - Department of Education
Volume: 17 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 130-148| March 2025-|-https://doi.org/10.54940/ep17218978-|-PDF
Received:-28/11/2023-|-Received:-09/12/2023-|-Accepted:-28/12/2023
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Abstract
Although preschool, elementary, and secondary student numbers are declining with the population in Korea, the local education finance is rising due to its linkage with internal taxes, prompting calls for subsidy reform. However, despite decreasing student numbers, ongoing educational issues, and a demand for future education, maintaining and increasing local education finance are required to nurture talents. In this paper, we analyze Korea’s local education finance and future education environment to suggest improvements for the system. First, despite rising local education finance and declining student numbers, the demand for education finance does not decrease directly due to the basic expenditure unit being the number of classes and schools. Additionally, it is necessary to expand the resources to improve the educational environments (resolving overcrowded classes, High School Credit system, Green Smart School projects, etc.) and foster future talents.
For this, the current combined ‘Local Education Subsidy System’ should be diversified to solve specific issues without affecting the whole subsidy system.
For efficiency, local education subsidies should minimize unused amounts and carryovers through the Consolidated Financial Stability Fund, Educational Environment Improvement Fund, and Continuing Expense System and incentivize efficient financial execution.
Moreover, the autonomy of local education finance should be enhanced by reducing measurement items in the standard financial demand for the General Subsidies.
Keywords
Local education finance, Grant system, Education financial demand, Future education environment , Korean education
How to Cite
Nam, S. (2025). A STUDY OF KOREA’S LOCAL EDUCATION FINANCE AND FUTURE REFORM DIRECTIONS UNDER THE EDUCATION EVIRONMENT CHANGES. Journal of Umm Al-Qura University for Educational and Psychological Sciences, 17(1), 130-148. https://doi.org/10.54940/ep17218978
License
1658-8177/© 2024-by the Authors. Published by-J. Umm Al-Qura Univ. for Edu. and Psychological Sci.-This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/-