Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

Schools freed from state control




The Education Ministry yesterday disclosed its plans to free elementary, middle and high schools from state control, and to hand over much of its supervisory role to local education authorities.
It is the first time the central government as taken a hands-off approach on school operation.

Twenty-nine rules concerning matters such as after-school classes and lessons targeted for students of different academic levels will be scrapped this month, and another 13 will be revised in June, the ministry said.


Seniors at a Seoul high school take a national exam yesterday. [Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald]
Local superintendents, instead of the Education Minister, will appoint principals and school inspectors. The revised bills are slated to be submitted to the National Assembly in June. "The ministry drew up the deregulation plans in accord with the Lee Myung-bak administration's policy to expand local autonomy and diversify school education," vice minister Woo Hyung-shik said in a briefing yesterday.

"The government's role will be limited to protecting the students' rights in terms of health and safety. It will continue to have control on physical checkups, physical education, school violence and classes at unusual hours."

Provincial and municipal superintendents will be in charge of elementary, middle and high school education in their regions, the ministry announced.

The central government will focus on the education of pre-school children and the disabled, as well as students and schools that fall behind.

Schools will no longer be prohibited from employing hagwon instructors for after-school lessons, or from using exams administered by private organizations. They will no longer be barred running supplementary classes before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m.

Elementary schools will be freed from the state regulation that limited their after-school classes to only music, computers, arts or sports. Students of different academic levels have only been able to take separate lessons in math and English until now, but those restraints will be eliminated.

"It could be chaotic for a while as individual schools and local education authorities are to make decisions for themselves, but we believe it wouldn't lead to extreme cases of streaming students according to their ability for all subjects or keeping students at schools past 10 p.m.," said a senior ministry official.

The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations said in a statement yesterday that it welcomed the overall initiative, but that the power allowing the superintendent to appoint principals should be reconsidered.

The Korean Teachers & Education Workers Union slammed the ministry's plan, saying it would stoke conflict among schools and the government was abandoning its duties.

"The schools would stretch classes around the clock and become like 24-hour hagwon," the union said in a statement.

Government rules regarding public school teachers' maternity leave and nighttime graduate schooling, the transfer of teachers between schools, and the evaluation of schools will also be abolished. Superintendents will set the standards for evaluating kindergartens and provide guidelines to elementary, middle and high schools, in addition to designating institutes in remote areas.

More controversial issues, such as the rules for establishing special-purpose schools, will be settled in the latter half of this year, the ministry said.

Those who wish to open a special-purpose school such as a foreign language high school are currently required to confer with the government in advance.

The government plans to open 300 specialized high schools nationwide. The ministry said last month that it will select 88 schools in rural areas this year to become public boarding schools, and another 20 to be professional "meister" (the German word for "master," typically used in the context of master craftsmanship) schools.

Aiming to open 100 autonomous private schools by 2012, the ministry said it would prepare the necessary legislation by the end of this year, after selecting candidate schools from rural areas and small towns.


By Kim So-hyun

The Korea Herald

([email protected])

[VanIslander]

[majolica]

that sounds kind of scary... anyone have a more educated response to what things could look like in a couple years?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Wow - my school will *love* this.

[Hank the Iconoclast]

What the hell is this government thinking? Unbelievable. I am having a great time in Korea but they are so incredibly daft.

[bassexpander]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[bassexpander]

Well, I think they sort of said it wrong. I think this means they will allow more hiring of people for "after school programs." Remember, these are sometimes the shady ones that want you to open an illegal bank account in your name that they deposit money in for illegal reasons, leaving you with the tax burden later.