Education Minister Nominee Hearing
“I wasn’t aware, but it was my grave mistake”
[Seoul=NEWSIS] Reporter Go Seung-min – Lee Jin-sook, the Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and nominee for Minister of Education, is responding to questions during her confirmation hearing at the National Assembly’s Education Committee in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 16th. “I cannot express how deeply sorry I am to the citizens,” she said regarding the issue of her children’s early study abroad. “I sincerely apologize,” Lee added.
On this day, during the hearing at the National Assembly’s Education Committee, nominee Lee responded to criticism from Jin Sun-mi, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker, who noted concerns from the public and potential regulatory violations regarding her children’s early study abroad.
Lee’s younger daughter, A (33), reportedly started studying in the U.S. around 2007. A attended a boarding school in the U.S. as a ninth grader (equivalent to Korea’s third year of middle school), after completing only the first semester of 9th grade in Korea. She joined her older sister, B (34), at the school.
Prior to 2012, regulations only recognized study abroad for elementary and middle school children if their guardians had to travel abroad for unavoidable reasons. Therefore, there was a controversy around violating compulsory education rules.
Lee explained, “My spouse and I stayed in the U.S. as visiting scholars for a year from 2001 to 2002. That experience led our oldest child to strongly desire to study in the U.S. during high school.” She added, “Despite our efforts to dissuade her, her determination was strong, and we eventually consented at her request.” As for her younger daughter, Lee said, “She followed her sister.”
Lee stated, “Since the U.S. high school starts at ninth grade, my oldest started in the first year of high school and ended up attending for an additional year and a half. Following her sister a year later, our younger child also had to repeat a year and a half in school. At the time, we didn’t realize it was illegal.”
Lee Jin-sook concluded, “My younger child entered American high school six months late, in the second semester of her Korean third-year middle school, and even if I wasn’t aware, it was a grave mistake on my part.”