1920년대 총독부 교육재정 정책의 변화와 공립보통학교 설립열의 확산

Two phenomena－the upsurge in the establishment of public common schools and the rise of the education craze－well showcase the education craze in Korean public common schools in the 1920s. The education craze in Korea has been previously understood as a result of change in the Koreans’ perception towards modern education. However, the establishment of schools, which led to the education fever in the early 1920s, was a practical act, and was necessarily related to the various circumstances of the era. It, therefore, is important to take the social and economic context, which made the collective act of establishing schools possible, into consideration. Education finance in the 1910s was run by subsidies from property of the local Hyanggyo schools and local taxation and was indirectly funded by Koreans. Under the Korean Local School Board Expense Legislation in the 1920s, on the other hand, Koreans directly pay an earmarked tax called the “local school board expense (hag’kyo-bi).” Through this, Koreans were able to acknowledge the concept of education tax. The local school board expense was imposed on the residents in gun(郡, districts) in the order of property, and whether schools existed were not of consideration in the process. Accordingly, dissatisfaction arose in districts without schools as they were unable to bene fit from school education despite taxation. Such injustice in taxation system set the cause for the demand to establish educational facilities. The Japanese Government General could not ignore the Koreans’ reasonable demand which has been induced by the tax system. In the end, the Korean education fever, which is signified by the establishment of public common schools in the 1920s, was formed as the perception towards modern education changed, with the added influence of the Korean local school board expense legislation, the gun(郡, districts) tax system. The Korean education fever was a complex result which was closely influenced by and affected the policies set by the Japanese Government General.