[Editorial] We’re Going to Leave Economic Education to the FKI?

The Education Ministry and the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) have signed a joint accord to make more substantial economic education. The aim is to improve economic education, which is currently far removed from realities outside of the classroom, through cooperation between the private and government sectors. But the core of agreement is for the so-called business world to directly participate in determining textbook content and teacher education, such as including figures proposed by business groups in the process of reorganizing economic textbooks.

Firstly, we cannot understand what educational authorities were thinking when it said it would create an official channel in the public education process that reflects the demands of a particular interest group. It’s a deal that far from making education independent instead loses even the slightest sense of balance in education. The Education Ministry says its move is to reflect in a balanced way the demands of all walks of life in economics education. The FKI, however, is not an educational body. It’s just a group that backs the interests of big corporations and jaebeol conglomerates. If one were to say the FKI is an interested party in economic education, there would be no reason to leave out labor and consumer groups, and don’t teachers, students and school parents come first in education?

The FKI and other business groups have been claiming that current economic textbooks provoke anti-business and anti-market sentiment. Not long ago, they produced their own textbooks and submitted them to the Seoul Office of Education for approval. It's a disgrace for educational authorities to unilaterally accept the demands of the business world and then paint it as “making use of private support.”

Of course, one must correct in economic textbooks mistaken descriptions of basic economic principles or overly ethical or conclusive analysis. But the ideological tendency of economic textbooks is nothing more than the logic of the business world. Even mainstream economists acknowledge that the social contributions of businesses are as important as their pursuit of profits, and overinvestment in big corporations was a major cause of the 1997 foreign exchange crisis. For the business world to directly involve itself in the textbook process because it doesn’t find textbooks to their liking goes way over the line. The inappropriate accord between the FKI and Education Ministry must be annulled immediately.

The Hankyoreh, 16 February 2006.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]