![Yoo Jeong-gi, acting superintendent of education for Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province (third from left in the back row), observes a two-teacher co-taught class at Namwon Elementary School on the 21st. [Photo provided by the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education]](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2026/04/21/20260421161223666078.jpg)
The Jeonbuk Office of Education said it expanded the number of basic skills lead schools to 369 this year — about half of all schools — from 99 last year, aiming to prevent learning gaps early and reduce disparities in education.
Namwon Elementary, now in its fourth year as a lead school, has built a classroom culture designed to keep all students engaged through a “one classroom, two teachers” model in which a specialist teacher and the homeroom teacher co-teach lessons.
The school reported that after three years of operating as a lead school, achievement among students needing learning support improved significantly, including in math.
After observing a third-grade co-taught class, Yoo held a meeting with Principal Ahn Jung-man and teachers to hear requests from the field, including the stable placement of specialist teachers and support for running lead schools.
“The Namwon Elementary co-teaching model is an excellent example of how classroom-centered accountability in education can be put into practice at schools,” Yoo said. He added that the office would provide administrative and financial support so no student is left behind in learning, including expanding lead schools to 60% of all schools next year.
Senior officials hold integrity policy forum, focus on upgrading Jeonbuk-style model
![Officials attend an integrity policy forum at the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education on the 20th. [Photo provided by the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education]](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2026/04/21/20260421161429284849.jpg)
The office said the forum was held to seek strategies to improve integrity by analyzing areas vulnerable to corruption, based on results from an integrity-level assessment conducted in February.
Participants discussed ways to ensure fairness on issues that can hurt public trust, including illegal donations tied to school sports teams and suspected collusion in construction and contracting. They also discussed factors that can undermine internal confidence, such as unfair personnel decisions, authoritarian abuse of power, and distrust in reporting systems.
The forum presented action steps to raise integrity, including establishing an everyday culture of integrity, building cooperative networks by corruption-vulnerable area, and expanding a joint integrity governance framework involving the public and private sectors and labor.
The office said senior officials’ leadership by example and building a field-centered system for implementation were emphasized as key tasks.
It said it plans to use the forum as a starting point to further develop a Jeonbuk-style integrity model for clean education administration.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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