Analysis of Demands for Separation and Establishment of Integrated Office of Education -Focusing on FGI with stakeholders-

The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze stakeholders’ demands for the separation and establishment of integrated office of education and also derive its policy and institutional implications. For this purpose, FGI was conducted with teachers, staff, parents, employees of general public offices and offices of education in the regions where the demands have been continuously raised. As result, first, in terms of the role of the office of education and its importance, the stakeholders recognized that the office of education should support educational administrative services optimized for the students and schools and carry out projects tailored to the local characteristics by linking schools and the community. Second, in terms of the necessity and factors to consider the separation and establishment of the integrated office of education, the stakeholders emphasized historical and cultural differences in the regions, the gap of educational demands and environment, workload increase as well as decrease in efficiency due to the rapid increase in the number of students in certain regions with urban planning, accessibility(distance) or discomfort due to traffic conditions, local autonomy and regional development through meeting the demands for customized educational administration. Third, with regard to the plan options for the separation and establishment of integrated office of education, stakeholders preferred plan option 2 (1 City/County/District 1 Office of Education), but they also mentioned other plans needed to be considered at the same time. Based on the results, this study suggests flexibility in setting jurisdictional regions for the office of education, separating a few integrated offices of education, searching for comprehensive measures to improve the efficiency of the office of education.