According to the decision made at the 4th WTO Ministerial Meeting of November 2001, member countries are required to submit their offers in services by 31st March. To this end, the Korean government has decided upon the its initial offers, in which it has proposed to liberalise legal services, international deliveries, finance, construction, environment and communications services. Also, the government is planning to decide its offers in the education sector within this week, much to the anger of civil and social organizations who are against the liberalization of education. The Minister of Education, Yoon Deok-Hong, has proposed to postpone the submission of the offers in March and to further debate on the issue. However, the Minister of Finance, Kim Jin-Pyo, and other finance and trade officials are relentlessly contending that opening of markets is inevitable. The government has announced that it will start bilateral negotiations from May, as soon as the matter on education!
on is settled and offers submitted to the WTO secretariat by the deadline of 31st March.
However, it has been stated by the WTO itself that the “deadline” is, in fact, a recommendation, at which the only countries expected to submit their offers are US and EU. Also, the number of countries expected to make their offers before the 5th Ministerial Meeting in September will only be about 30 countries. Even the EU, which will make its offers, has decided to exclude audio-visual, medical and educational services. This shows us that opening of markets, especially in the services sector, is not an inevitable trend. The Korean government is one of the few governments that is trying to be an exemplary country and hurrying to submit offers. After the IMF structural adjustment programs, Korea has already implemented many autonomous liberalisation measures in services. The role of the Korean government has been to encourage the opening of markets in the developing countries on behalf of the US. On top of it all, the GATS will bring about further privatisation in electricity!
Communications and postal services, while commodifying education and healthcare. In other words, the Korean government is committed to fulfilling all the requirements of the WTO in order to attract foreign investments by giving more allowances to transnational capital.
The destructive effect the opening of public services will have on the lives of people is evident. At the moment, teachers, students and most social organizations are against the opening of markets in education. The liberalization of education will lead to decrease in government support for education and failure to control education institutions that seek only profit. It will eventually lead to abandonment of state responsibilities to provide good quality education to all its people. Also, opening of education will increase education fees and the disparity of education. Thus, the GATS is an agreement that deprives the access to education at the same time transferring the costs to the people, for the sake of attracting and benefitting transnational capital.
In light of the serious outcome of the GATS, the government must not submit offers in services. We demand an immediate moratorium on all GATS processes and opening of all service sectors. We demand that President Noh Moo-Hyun cancel all plans to submit offers before 31st March. We also demand that extensive investigation be carried out on the disastrous effects of the liberalization of education and other services.
24th March, 2003
Korean People’s Action against BIT and WTO (KoPA)
[For Reference]
Development of the struggle of the opposition to the opening of the educational industry
1. Progress of organizing the Korean Education Network Against GATS (KENAG)
In the second half of the year 2002, there have been preliminary announcements of legislation of related bills concerning educational opening, thereby accelerating the governments promotion to open up the education sector.
Educational stakeholders such as Progressive Education Research Institute (PERI), Korean Teachers Union (KTU), National Association Cham-Education, Korean Students Coalition and Korean Professors Union recognized the need for collaborative countermove against such intention, and thus by having three consecutive preliminary meetings after mid-September, formed a preparatory unit in order to constitute a
Educational Stakeholders Workshop In Opposition to the Educational Opening was held under the auspices of the
Korean Education Network Against GATS (KENAG) to block the four legislations and an offer list related to WTO opening and marketization of the educational district> announced its establishment through a press conference on October 7th by educational stakeholders and civilian social organizations that oppose to the educational opening.
Declaration on the establishment of the KENAG
In accordance with the negotiations of the Doha Development Agenda, which was officially launched through The Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference held at Doha, Qatar in November 2002, opening of market and liberalization of trade at a wide range of sectors such as agriculture and service industry are currently under discussion. In such course, education category has been included in the General Agreement on Trade in Services at WTO, and now the opening of the education sector is imminent. The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have submitted a list of concessions they seek through the educational opening through a request list and our government is placed in a situation where it has to submit a corresponding offer list by the end of March next year.
And yet to ones amazement, and despite the fact that full-scale negotiations are to be proceeded after the end of March 2003, the Ministry of Education has made preliminary announcements of legislation of revised bills of Higher Education Act and Private School Act on September 4th, which are laws related to the blueprint to attract superior foreign universities, and a bill that enables employment of foreign nationals as elementary/secondary teachers on September 19th. Moreover, the Ministry of Finance and Economy has made a preliminary announcement of legislation of a
This is no different from accomplishing the neoliberalistic structural reform through the educational opening.
The opening of the education sector means infiltration of multinational capital even to our domestic education. Accordingly, education is depreciated as a means to pursue profits, thereby fundamentally shaking our education system. Just as in other countries cases, the tendency to privatize national universities will be accelerated after the opening, and the registration fees will soar. What is more, the administration and supervision of private schools will be alleviated in the name of autonomy with the introduction of Private School Clearing Law, causing extended irregularities and corruption of private schools. Since private schools, which are public institutions, become moneymaking institutes in pursuit of profits, the issue of private schools that occupy 84% of domestic universities, will be placed under some grave situation.
It is obvious that elementary and secondary private school foundations will make such demands as well, insisting on equaling out. In the midst of absurdity where Korean students attend schools built for foreigners, the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy are maintaining that it is necessary to alleviate the entrance requirements towards Korean nationals for the sake of the management of these foreign schools. The aftermath of the educational opening on our elementary and secondary education can be vividly conjectured. In case the bills the government is promoting are passed through, a series of demands such as remitting profits gained in Korea to home and legally allowing studying abroad at an early stage will come rushing in.
Education can never be within the sphere of commerce. Education is, socially speaking; the basic right of the people, and the solidification of our education can never be accomplished by some foreign educational institutes or foreign professors. We strongly censure the Kim Dae Jung government for leading the opening of the education sector, working in favor of foreign education capital rather than people’s right for education, and will fight desperately to halt the bills that have been announced preliminarily of legislation from being passed through at the National Assembly.
2. Progress of the Struggle
* October 7: After the press conference, a delegation of the
* October 16: Forum on the theme, ’Educational Opening, What Are The Problems?’ is proceeded..
* October 14 onwards: ’One Million Persons Signature Campaign in opposition to the WTO opening and marketization of the education sector, and to the legislations of the four bills’ among the educational stakeholders is launched.
* One-man demonstration, signature-seeking campaign and assembly supervised by the KENAG are conducted to block the passing of the four bills arranged for the voluntary liberalization of the educational opening at the regular National Assembly, which is in session until November 14th.
– October 22-23: One-man demonstration ’insisting on the withdrawal of the legislation of the four bills related to the educational opening, and on the suspension of the market-opening negotiations’ is conducted in front of the National Assembly and the Ministry of Education buildings.
– October 25: The struggle of ’The First Educational Stakeholders’ Rally to oppose the WTO opening and marketization of education, and to block the legislation of the four bills’ is proceeded.
– October 26-November 2: One-man demonstration ’insisting on the withdrawal of the legislation of the four bills related to the educational opening and the suspension of the market-opening negotiations’ is conducted.
* November 9, 13: Joint propaganda campaign and signature-seeking campaign to block the educational opening are conducted at the agrarian rally.
* After the regular National Assembly, KENAG intervenes in the 16th presidential election and delivers the standpoint of KENAG on the issue of the educational opening. The Democratic Labor Party responds in ’rejection of educational opening’ while the Democratic Party responds to ’open the education sector with careful consideration.’
* December 2: ’2002 Persons Declaration Campaign to resist the WTO opening and marketization of education’ is conducted, by gathering full force of the educational stakeholders nationwide and social civilian groups.
* December 2: Holds a press conference ’insisting on the suspension of negotiations on the WTO educational opening, and the abolition of Special Economy Zone Act’ is held. Talks with the Ministry of Education and forcefully criticizes the undemocratic and implosive aspects of the current proceedings of the educational opening, and the fabricated aspect of the current market-opening trend.
* November 23-December 21: Street propaganda campaigns and signature-seeking campaigns every week.
* December 10: Declaration campaign ’insisting on the impediment of the educational opening and on the expansion of publicness of the education. .
* December 3-6: One-man demonstration demanding ’suspension of negotiations on the educational opening.
As a result of many different ways of struggling during the first half of 2002, the bills related to the educational opening were resisted from passing through at the National Assembly, slowly letting the whole society be aware of the issue of the educational opening.
2003
* February 6, 13:00 PM: Joint press conference in opposition to WTO service negotiations concerning the opening of education/culture.
* February 13th, The First KENAG Delegates Meeting at the office of the Korean Teachers’ Union.
– Delegates of eleven organizations participate, discuss the February-March struggle plans, and confirm on the full-scale March struggle.
* February 19: Joint forum among groups of culture, health and education
– Joint forum is held jointly by the groups of culture, health and education to resist the WTO service negotiations on February 19th.
– Participant groups of the forum criticising that the WTO service negotiations, which date with the submission of the offer list in March, and which give away the sectors of education, culture, medicine to commercial pursuits of foreign education companies and cultural/medical capital and offer private education and domestic capital infinite opportunity to earn profits without undergoing any social discussion; are only for the materialization of the interests of capital that denies publicness.
– Participant groups carry the resolution to co-struggle with full force to stop the WTO service negotiations and the submission of the offer list in March that destroy the socio-public sphere.