An Min-seok, a candidate for Gyeonggi Province education superintendent, has pledged to create an education office–run "integrated substitute teacher pool" to address teacher shortages in kindergartens and K–12 schools.
An said on April 4 that he had met on April 3 with Song Gi-mun, chairman of the Gyeonggi Kindergarten Association, and association officials to discuss substitute teacher supply, staffing gaps between public and private kindergartens, support mechanisms, and other challenges facing early childhood education.
At the meeting, participants said that when teachers suddenly miss work for family events or illness, individual kindergartens must scramble to find replacements, which creates instructional gaps. They noted that public kindergartens can respond through a personnel pool while private kindergartens are effectively excluded from the same support system, widening the divide between the two sectors.
An characterized the problem as structural, stemming from differences in support systems between public and private institutions rather than from issues at individual kindergartens. He warned that leaving substitute staffing to each institution’s discretion makes stable instruction difficult to sustain.
Because the issue extends beyond kindergartens to elementary and middle schools, An said the education office itself should operate an integrated substitute teacher pool. He proposed a personnel system spanning kindergartens, daycare centers, and K–12 schools so staff can be deployed immediately in emergencies.
“We will narrow the staffing-response gap between public and private schools and reduce teachers’ workloads to preserve continuity in education,” An said. “We can no longer tolerate a system where instruction grinds to a halt when one teacher is absent. The education office must take responsibility and build an integrated substitute teacher pool to eliminate these instructional gaps.”
Suwon — By Kim Dong-sung
