[Editorial] More Perfect and Thorough Supervision over
School Construction
Four new elementary and middle school buildings in Busan that were built last year and this year are currently undergoing repairs because water is leaking through cracked walls and facilities are collapsing. The defects have occurred in buildings that had been approved on completion not long ago. Such defects are trivial problems that commonly take place in concrete buildings. However, the matter changes at a place called school, where our children study and play, since such places deserve special emphasis on safety, more than any other place.
The construction of school facilities holds flexibility in supervision operations unlike other structures. Supervision can be managed by major companies, architects, or the Ministry of Education. The Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education placed supervision of all new construction, enlargement of buildings and repair work under the charge of a public official in a technical post because it would reduce the budget for costs of external supervision.
However, the internal supervision by the Busan Office of Education is causing gossip. The monopolization of placing orders, supervision and completion of construction by the office could result in higher chances of fraud. The new elementary and middle schools that are currently under renovation have probably been affected by unguarded parts of the self-supervision. The reality is that suspicions remain of intimate connections between the Office of Education and construction companies. The self-supervision system does not contain a program to watch over the intimacy between the two. Furthermore, it fails to meet the current trend of reinforcing supervisory systems that were established to prevent the fraudulent work in advance.
Nevertheless, supervision of construction cannot be entirely delegated to external organizations since the work force and the budget will be squandered. The best measure is to reinforce the internal program for thorough self-supervision. No fraudulent work will be acceptable, at least in school construction, as it is the place where our children receive education.
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 / 입력시간: 2006. 12.06. 08:05
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