The decision-making authority of school principals and teachers has diminished in Korea, while the influence of regional education offices has expanded, according to a new report. Although the Ministry of Education has transferred powers to metropolitan and provincial education offices through the expansion of local education autonomy, that autonomy has not extended to schools themselves, analysts say.
According to a report titled "How Much Authority Do School Principals Have?: Based on OECD Data" released by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) on Tuesday, school authority in Korea stood at 5.65 points as of 2022, below the OECD average of 6.97 points. School authority declined steadily from 7.44 points in 2009 to 7.36 in 2012 and 7.24 in 2015, before falling to the 5-point range in 2022.
Education office authority, by contrast, has expanded. Regional authority dropped to 2.70 points in 2012 but rebounded to 3.30 points in 2015 and rose to 4.49 points in 2022 — more than double the OECD average of 1.77 points.
Principal authority also fell short of the OECD average. Principal authority stood at 2.76 points in 2022, lower than the OECD average of 3.40 points. The principal's decision-making authority was found to be relatively limited, particularly in teacher personnel matters, budgets, and student guidance.
Teacher authority showed a similar declining trend, falling from 3.09 points in 2009 to 2.27 points in 2022. In student guidance areas such as student conduct management, student assessment, and student admissions, teacher authority registered just 0.51 points, well below the OECD average of 0.85 points.
In the curriculum domain, however, the autonomy of schools, teachers, and principals was higher than the OECD average. While curriculum operations are conducted with relative autonomy, the personnel and budget powers that should support them are concentrated at the education offices, the report explained.
"The simultaneous decline in the authority of principals and teachers indicates that the professional autonomy of schools has weakened overall," said Lee Seung-ho, a research fellow at KEDI. "The authority transferred from the Ministry of Education to regional education offices has not been sufficiently passed down to schools."
He added, "There is a need to gradually transfer the teacher personnel and budget powers concentrated at education offices to the school level. We need to redesign the balance between principals' responsibilities and authority, and expand teachers' professional judgment and discretion."
