Education superintendents are entitled to their right to designate new autonomous private high schools, Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea said Wednesday, possibly reversing his previous position.

“The issue of designating new autonomous private high schools is up to the education chiefs,” said Hwang, when asked whether the Education Ministry would “continue to increase the number of corporate-affiliated autonomous schools” during the parliamentary audit held at the Government Complex in Sejong.

Korean law states that superintendents must confer with the ministry when granting high schools the status of de facto elite schools, and when revoking their privileges.

In light of the ministry’s row with Seoul Education Superintendent Cho Hi-yeon over the potential cancellation of eight autonomous schools, the ministry has made it clear that the minister has the final say in canceling or designating the schools.

Hwang stressed that he would not approve of Cho’s decision to turn the schools into regular schools, while Cho said that the law only mandates that education chiefs must “confer” not “reach agreement” with the minister.

At his confirmation hearing last month, Hwang said that the cited clause requires agreement, not simple discussion.

With the cited eight schools fiercely refusing actions by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the clause had cited controversy over who has the ultimate authority to take away a school’s rights.

But Hwang’s statement on Wednesday shows that he has interpreted the “confer” ― at least in the designation part ― as not requiring ministry approval.

Hwang was also grilled over the recent controversy over possible revival of state-authored history textbooks and recently revealed education budget, which allocated no money for the state-initiated free child care and high school education program. The minister said he acknowledged the seriousness of the problem and vowed to work on it.

Rep. Do Jong-hwan of the main opposition New Politics Alliance and Democracy pointed out that the fifth-grade social studies textbook for the 2015 school year described former President Park Chung-hee, the father of incumbent President Park Geun-hye, in a favorable way. He added such lopsided views can be even worse if the textbooks were exclusively authored by the government.

Hwang said the decision on state textbooks would be reached after careful consideration and would reflect the opinions of the public.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)