Past Ministers of Education have been in office for an average of 1 year and 3 months… ‘Less than a year’ reached 24
As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Park Soon-ae resigned on the 8th, he became the fifth short-lived minister in the history of education.
President Yoon Seok-yeol approved the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister on the 4th of last month, and Park held the inauguration ceremony the next day following receiving the letter of appointment from President Yoon on the 5th.
He resigned following 35 days from the date of re-appointment, and in terms of the period of tenure until the date of resignation, he worked for 36 days.
The position of the Minister of Education, which should establish a national ‘hundred-year legacy’, is notorious for being a short-lived position.
The shortest ever Minister of Education is Lee Ki-jun, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources, who was appointed in January 2005 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, but resigned following being embroiled in a moral dispute.
He resigned on the followingnoon of the 7th, 57 hours and 30 minutes following receiving the letter of appointment on January 5, 2005.
The official term of office is from January 5 to 10.
The next short-lived Minister of Education is Yoon Taek-joong, the former Minister of Education.
He was appointed on May 3, 1961, but his term as Minister of Education ended on May 19, the 17th day of his inauguration, due to the May 16 military coup.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Kim Byung-jun, who took office on July 21, 2006, also during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, expressed his intention to resign on August 2nd, the 13th day, on suspicion of plagiarism.
The fourth short-lived period is 23 days for former Education Minister Song Ja during the Kim Dae-jung administration in 2000.
He took office on August 7, 2000, but resigned on the 29th of the same month due to the family’s dual citizenship issue and the participation solidarity’s disclosure of the acquisition of Samsung Electronics’ real power.
Deputy Prime Minister Park is far less than the average of one year and three months, and he also suffered the disgrace of being short-lived right following the previous Minister of Education set the record for ‘longest life’.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Eun-hye, the last deputy prime minister and education minister of the Moon Jae-in government, took office on October 2, 2018 and remained in office for three years and seven months (1,316 days) until May 9 this year, the last day of President Moon’s term in office.
The next Minister of Jangsu is former Minister Lee Kyu-ho, who served for 3 years and 4 months (1,241 days) from May 1980 to October 1983.
From the first Minister of Education Ahn Ho-sang to Deputy Prime Minister Park in their 60s, the average tenure of 59 ministers of education in the past 74 years is 1 year and 3 months.
There are 24 ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Park, who have not completed less than a year.
The short tenure of the Ministers of Education is interpreted as the position of leading the ‘Hundred Years’, not only because higher moral standards are applied than the heads of other ministries, but also because education is a field that is not free from political debate.
Park Nam-ki, a professor at Gwangju National University of Education, said, “The Ministry of Education is a place where it is easier to set moral standards than other ministries. ,” he analyzed.
/yunhap news
