Korea has four different levels of governance: the central government (national), metropolitan/provincial offices of education (regional), district offices of education support (local), and schools. 2 In Korea, the central government has been the prominent authority in policymaking and enforcement since the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948, due to the historical and cultural tradition of nearly a millennium of powerful central governments, from the Corea Dynasty of 918-1392 to the

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... Choseon Dynasty of 1392-1910. Before the autonomy of the local government began to be emphasized in the early 1990s, the metropolitan/provincial superintendents were appointed by the president. After that, they were elected by the School Council members. Since 2006, they have been directly elected by local residents and the superintendent's authority to make policies has been strengthened (Kim, 2017). The central government transferred much of its authority on elementary and secondary education to metropolitan/provincial education offices and schools around the year 2010. As a result, legally and institutionally much of the authority of the central government has been transferred to the local government, although in reality the central government is still very powerful. The district offices of education support remain true to their name, mainly "supporting" schools to implement policies and budgets determined by the metropolitan/provincial education offices, which are higher authorities, rather than making policy decisions themselves. The individual school has also had some authority to set its own policy since the introduction of the School Council system in 1998.