KB News Desk
The Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education has revoked the academy registration of Busan Logos International Christian School for allegedly operating unauthorized elementary and secondary school programs.
The education office said Tuesday that it has no plans to investigate individual teachers, including foreign instructors who may have taught subjects outside the scope of their E-2 language-instructor visas, and will instead focus enforcement on the school’s founder and operator.
The institution was issued a second corrective notice on Thursday over alleged violations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Its registration as a private academy had already been revoked on July 27 over separate violations of the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons.
The education office said it also plans to file a criminal complaint against the academy.
Founded as a Christian school in 2013, BLICS operated two campuses in Busan, offering elementary, middle and high school-level programs.
The institution had completed only the registration process required for a private academy and had not obtained authorization from the superintendent of education to establish and operate a school.
The latest action comes as the Education Ministry moves to tighten oversight of unauthorized international schools. In April, the ministry announced a nationwide inspection and said education authorities would consider filing criminal complaints or requesting police investigations against institutions found to be operating illegally.
Teachers not subject to probe
As of 2025, BLICS had around 230 students and 30 teachers, including both Korean and foreign nationals.
“We are not directly investigating individual teachers,” a Busan education office official told The Korea Herald. “Any responsibility will be directed at the founder and operator.”
The official said the academy’s operators would bear primary responsibility even if foreign teachers hired under E-2 language-instructor visas had taught subjects other than foreign languages.
“Because the operators hired and assigned them in that manner, the primary responsibility rests with the founder and operator,” the official said.
The education office currently has no plans to refer the teachers’ visa status to the Justice Ministry, the official added.
The official acknowledged that the office was examining other institutions suspected of operating unauthorized schools, but declined to disclose their names or number.
“We plan to finish issuing second corrective notices by the end of August,” the official said. “After that, we will visit the institutions to check whether they have taken corrective action.”
The office said BLICS was the last unauthorized school under investigation that was formally registered as a private academy. The other institutions operate under different organizational or registration arrangements, it said.
