Jeju to discuss expansion of school safety police officers; Province and education office to discuss joint funding on the 23rd

【Financial News Jeju = Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 Jeju Province and the Jeju Provincial Office of Education will discuss expanding the school safety police officer program and securing joint funding. Eight agenda items are up for discussion, including establishing a cooperative system to promote respect for students’ lives and plans for 2027 school meal costs and statutory transfers.
According to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education on the 21st, the two institutions will hold the “2026 Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Education Administrative Council” at 10 a.m. on the 23rd in the education office’s main conference room.
The council, the first to be held since the launch of the ninth popularly elected administration, will be co-chaired by Jeju Governor Wi Seong-gon and Jeju Superintendent of Education Ko Ui-suk. Jeju Provincial Council Education Committee Chair Kang Dong-u and Assembly Member Oh Eun-cho, as well as relevant bureau and department heads from both institutions, will also attend.
The key agenda items are expanding the school safety police officer program and sharing the related costs. The program is jointly operated by the Jeju Provincial Office of Education and the Jeju Autonomous Police Corps. Autonomous police officers are stationed at schools and handle safety duties such as traffic guidance during arrival and dismissal, patrols of vulnerable areas, and school violence prevention.
The program began operating at three high schools in Jeju in 2024. According to an operational plan announced by the education office in February this year, school safety police officers had been assigned to six high schools at the time, and the office was pursuing a plan to assign two more within the year.
Jeju Province and the education office previously agreed at last October’s Education Administrative Council to share the personnel costs for school safety police officers. The education office allocated 288.8 million won in its related budget for this year.
At this council, the two institutions will revisit plans to expand the program and secure funding, building on their existing joint operating system.

Establishing a cooperative system to promote a culture of respect for students’ lives is also on the joint agenda. At an administrative audit by the Jeju Provincial Council’s Education Committee on the 6th, concerns were raised that the effectiveness of prevention education should be assessed, alongside figures showing that 70 students in Jeju had attempted suicide or self-harmed this year.
Jeju Province and the education office will discuss a joint response to promote a culture of respect for life at the council. They will also consider developing the infrastructure needed for the construction of a provisionally named “Jeju Institute for Special Education Research.”
Education finance for 2027 is also a major agenda item. The education office proposed plans for next year’s school meal subsidies and budget allocations for statutory transfers. Statutory transfers are education funds that Jeju Province transfers to the education office under relevant laws and regulations.
At last year’s Education Administrative Council, the parties agreed to raise this year’s school free meal costs and eco-friendly meal costs by 5.2% each. As a result, a total of 110.9 billion won was allocated this year for school meals in Jeju, covering about 79,000 students.
At the council, Jeju Province will propose establishing a cooperative system to support the “One Student, One Sport” education program and strengthen International Baccalaureate (IB) education. The education office will also request coordination of book-return services between public libraries run by local governments and those affiliated with education offices.
Before discussing the agenda items, the two institutions plan to issue a “Joint Declaration on Creating Educational Conditions Through Educational Innovation and Promoting a Culture of Respect for Life.” They also plan to prepare a separate joint agreement reflecting the outcome of the discussions, then sign and exchange it.
Specific agreements, including the scale of the school safety police officer expansion, the sharing of joint funding, and next year’s meal subsidies, are expected to be finalized after the council meeting on the 23rd.


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