Revitalizing Field Trips: How Policy Changes Can Transform Education in Gyeonggi Province

[Inews24 Reporter Jeong Jae-su] One hundred field-trip professionals called for institutional reforms to revive field trips and formally endorsed Gyeonggi Province superintendent candidate An Min-seok, delivering a set of policy proposals.

At An’s campaign office on the 26th, representatives and workers from field trips, school trips and student training programs attended an event to present policy proposals and declare support. They said they had been told policy could solve the problem and that the meeting gave them renewed hope they could resume operations.

In response, An pledged to change the system that places responsibility for field-trip accidents entirely on individual teachers. \"Field trips should not be halted; we must normalize them through formal policy,\" he said.

He warned that when teachers are forced to assume full responsibility for accidents during educational activities, few will be willing to organize field trips. \"Out-of-class learning must not stop,\" he added.

He said field trips have been curtailed not because demand has fallen but because existing regulations cannot absorb the burdens facing the field. Without changing the responsibility structure, he warned, the decline will continue.

An proposed formalizing clear liability exemptions for teachers. \"We must establish standards that do not hold teachers responsible for accidents that occur during educational activities, especially field trips,\" he said. \"As superintendent, I will personally persuade the National Assembly to amend the relevant laws and regulations.\"

He emphasized he will personally lobby the National Assembly and seek legal remedies, adding that as an education politician who bridges education and politics, he will reform the system.

He said field trips should be integrated into the curriculum as essential educational activities rather than treated as mere events, and called for a shared responsibility framework between education offices and schools. He also urged development of practical safety standards and support systems tailored to field conditions.

Finally, An warned that any further decline in field trips would hurt students, and pledged to translate the field's proposals into policy and law and deliver concrete results.