[INTERVIEW] Seoul’s education system needs drastic overhaul amid demographic, technological changes

Jung Keun-sik, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training (SMOE), speaks throughout an interview with The Korea Instances on the training workplace constructing, Dec. 12. Courtesy of the SMOE

Seoul’s college system is grappling with mounting challenges amid fast technological developments and rising ethnic range, in response to the top of town’s training workplace.

„Insurance policies want to higher mirror the voices of training websites to drive significant change and sort out the urgent points in Korean training,“ Jung Keun-sik, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training (SMOE), mentioned throughout a current interview with The Korea Instances.

The variety of multicultural college students within the capital has surged over the previous decade, with many foreign-born college students arriving halfway by means of or late of their education years rising by 178 p.c, whereas an 80 p.c improve was recorded amongst multicultural college students born in Korea.

„These college students typically wrestle with important communication boundaries and difficulties adapting to highschool life attributable to cultural variations, language boundaries and abrupt adjustments of their surroundings,“ Jung mentioned.

In response, the SMOE has outlined a complete plan to deal with these challenges. Its core targets embody offering equal instructional alternatives for multicultural college students, narrowing instructional disparities and fostering a tradition of mutual respect the place numerous cultures can coexist.

Jung Keun-sik, fourth from proper, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training, poses with the employees on the Seoul Multicultural Training Help Heart, Dec. 12, throughout his go to to assemble perception on the challenges multicultural college students face. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training

The workplace is implementing a spread of focused insurance policies and initiatives to fulfill these objectives.

A significant focus of the coverage is enhancing Korean language training for multicultural college students. By making a tailor-made assist community, the workplace affords packages tailored to every scholar’s Korean proficiency, in addition to their college stage and the focus of multicultural college students of their lessons.

Moreover, Jung emphasised the necessity for a two-teacher system in lecture rooms with a excessive focus of multicultural college students, including an extra teacher to assist the first instructor.

„College students who’ve hardships understanding Korean want academics who can each train the language and talk of their native language to offer efficient assist,“ he mentioned. „People from multicultural backgrounds have to step into roles as instructors, class helpers or academics to higher handle and help these college students.“

Nevertheless, Jung acknowledged that price range constraints pose important challenges. He additionally known as for structural adjustments to allow higher native administration of instructor recruitment.

„The Ministry of Training at the moment oversees instructor appointments centrally, however the authority to find out the variety of academics must be transferred to every training workplace to make these initiatives possible,“ he mentioned.

In 2025, the SMOE plans to launch a Korean language preparatory college as a part of efforts to strengthen assist for Korean language training.

It’ll supply a three-month intensive Korean language program for college kids who wrestle to speak in Korean. After finishing this system, these college students will return to their common colleges and obtain extra assist to assist them alter to highschool life.

Initially, this system will begin with two establishments, with plans to step by step broaden to 11.

Jung Keun-sik, proper, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training, discusses assist measures for colleges with a excessive focus of multicultural college students at Seoul Younglim Elementary College in southern Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo District. Dec. 12. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training

Jung additionally pressured the necessity to overhaul the training system in response to fast adjustments in society, significantly pushed by rising applied sciences like synthetic intelligence (AI).

„The normal aggressive training mannequin now not suits the AI-driven period,“ he mentioned. „Collaboration, communication abilities and creativity are actually important.“

He emphasised that this transformation requires not solely adjustments in educating strategies but additionally structural reforms in college admissions.

„We should transfer away from rote memorization and standardized testing, just like the a number of choice-based Korean school entrance exams, that are now not enough,“ Jung mentioned. „If the college admissions system doesn’t change, there’s no likelihood for reform in decrease training, as the main focus will stay on getting ready college students to enter college.“

He advised fostering dialogue and demanding pondering in colleges with partaking lessons resembling studying, debate and expressing college students’ concepts, to allow them to develop the arrogance to ask questions and innovate.

„Such instructional initiatives have to be supported by universities that prioritize these abilities of their admissions course of,“ he mentioned.

Concerning the rise in deepfake crimes involving minors this yr, Jung pressured the significance of preventive training over authorized motion.

„The essence of training is educating college students the suitable solution to stop such conditions, relatively than relying solely on judicial measures,“ he mentioned.

He mentioned many college students are unaware of the seriousness of misusing deepfake expertise, together with creating manipulated or express content material, with some dismissing it as a mere prank.

In response, the SMOE is advocating for stronger digital ethics training.

„We have to train college students that such actions infringe on human rights and are morally improper,“ Jung mentioned.

He additionally criticized the rising pattern of „judicialization“ in training, the place disputes are more and more resolved by means of lawsuits, arguing that it deters academics from taking proactive roles.

Jung Keun-sik, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Training, delivers a speech on the 2024 Seoul Training Coverage Discussion board held on the Seoul Training Analysis and Info Institute in downtown Seoul, Dec. 6. Yonhap

Jung then underscored the significance of complete training reforms, saying that significant change goes past coverage changes.

„Training reform isn’t nearly altering insurance policies. It requires structural and cultural shifts as properly,“ he mentioned.

He pressured the necessity for societal attitudes towards training to evolve, urging mother and father and college students to rethink its function.

„Training shouldn’t be about chasing the highest rank — it must be about creating an pleasing and significant studying expertise,“ Jung mentioned.

He added that true reform can solely be achieved by means of a mixture of coverage enhancements, structural adjustments — resembling prioritizing college admissions standards — and a cultural shift in how college students and oldsters understand the true function of training.