학령인구 감소시대 학교규모 정책의 쟁점과 과제

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discuss the policy direction for 'school size' in South Korea, which is facing an era of a decline in the school-age population. First, in relation to the school-scale policy, the policy of consolidation and abolition of small-scale schools, the policy of fostering small-scale schools, and the common school district system, which have been promoted by the government and local governments, were reviewed. Such school size policies have been implemented for the purpose of creating conditions to optimize the school size and guarantee students' right to learn. Along with the review of such policies, three things were reviewed as prerequisites for establishing school size policies in the era of a decrease in the school-age population: legal standards for appropriate school size at the national level, standards for determining school size, and factors for determining school size. In conclusion, the appropriate school size is inevitably closely related to local community and population policies because it is difficult to solve the problem only with the educational community's policy. Especially, the difference in perspective on the size of schools inside and outside the education world is clearly revealed, and it is also worth noting that such differences in perspective may function as a structural context that is difficult to reach some kind of policy agreement. In the future policy direction, the National Education Commission(NEC in South Korea) mid-to long-term development plan for school size, which was officially launched in July 2022, proposes a system that can respond flexibly to local issues, including school size, at the level of basic municipalities, such as linkage and cooperation between local education support offices and basic local governments.