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Choice is between abolition or cut in size
November 27, 2009
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| A task force under the Education Ministry unveiled yesterday two tentative reform plans for the decades-old foreign language high school system - either abolishing a sizable portion of existing special-purpose schools or transforming them into ordinary schools - to be effective from 2013 admissions. The two blueprints laid out by the task force for reforming this high school system will go through a public discussion process. The ministry said it will choose one of them and announce a confirmed plan on Dec. 10. According to the first plan, foreign language high schools, currently totaling 30 nationwide, should choose from two options. One is maintaining their status as foreign language high schools but reducing the number of classes and students; the other is changing themselves into other forms of high schools - autonomous private or public high schools, international schools and ordinary high schools. If a school insists on remaining as a foreign language high school, the ceiling for students per class will be reduced to an average of 20.9 or below, compared with the present 36.5, said Park Bu-kwon, a professor of education at Dongguk University who heads the task force. The measure is aimed at raising the quality of education, he explained. The number of classes per grade should also be shrunk to six, from 10 to 12 now. That means Daewon and Daeil, the two oldest such schools in Korea, which have 12 classes each, will have to slash more than one third of their classes. Hanyoung and Seoul presently have 10 classes, while Ewha has six, the only school that won’t have to scale down. Under the second plan, all foreign language high schools will lose their status and be forced to change themselves into other types of schools. If they are transformed into ordinary schools, they can establish a special course focusing on foreign languages. Reforming foreign language high schools emerged as a hot button in recent months after lawmakers led by Chung Doo-un of the ruling Grand National Party claimed those schools, a key culprit behind the country’s private education fever, should be removed. Korean households set aside a sizable portion of their disposable income on private education, including tutor and registration with private institutes, or hagwon, to gain acceptance to one of these highly competitive schools. Entry is often considered a strong guarantee of admission to a prestigious university and a good career later in life. The Lee Myung-bak administration, like other previous governments, has placed top priority on cracking down on the overheated private education market. The task force also came up with proposals for revising the regular high school system. It recommended that schools eliminate grades for mathematics and English so that students can take those subjects according to their academic level. The two key subjects will have 10 to 15 level classifications. By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr] |
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