 | Home : Teaching in Korea : Education in Korea
Korean Education System
Education System - described by the Korean Ministry of Education
Reference: http://www.moe.go.kr/en/down/edu-ko-b-c2.pdf
School Ladder System (6-3-3-4)
The school ladder system, the backbone of the school education system, unified structure connecting the different school levels. Korea has a singletrack 6-3-3-4 system which maintains a single line of school levels in order to insure that every citizen can receive elementary, secondary, and tertiary education without discrimination and according to his or her ability.
The main track of the system includes six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, three years of high school, and four years of university education. The higher education institutions consist of graduate schools, four-year universities, and two or three-year junior colleges. |
The school ladder system has undergone several changes in the past. The first system proposed by the Education Law promulgated in 1949 followed a 6-4-2-4 pattern, including six years of elementary school, four years of middle school, and dual tracks at the high school level, that is, two and four-year tracks.
In the first revision of the school ladder system that shortly followed (1950), the high school level was unified in a single three-year track, and the number of school years for teachers’ college was lengthened to three years.
The second revision in 1951 lowered the number of the middle school years to three years. When the Fifth Republic was inaugurated in 1981, the duration of school years for colleges of education was raised from two to four years. The next year, the Open University was founded. In sum, its having undergone only partial revisions and reinforcements, Korea’s school ladder system has preserved the original form of its single-track system adopted at the time of the promulgation of the Education Law. However, recent international trends in the field of education show continued expansion of pre-school education and lifelong education along with universalization of elementary and secondary education and mass access to higher education; therefore, there have arisen increasing demands to change the school ladder system to be more flexible.
|
School System Although preschool education is not yet compulsory, its importance has been increasingly recognized in recent years. As recently as 1980, there were only 901 kindergartens across the nation but this number has increased to 8,343 as of 2002. The government has carried out a nationwide project to subsidize kindergarten tuition for children from low-income families since September 1999, providing underprivileged children increased opportunities for preschool education and thereby establishing a more equitable educational environment. The program was expanded to provide free education for 20 percent of five-year-old children from 2002. |
Elementary schooling is compulsory with an enrollment rate of 100 percent. Three more years of compulsory education for the middle school course was implemented nationwide in 2002.
The average number of students per teacher in elementary schools stood at 58.8 in 1960. This figure has been reduced to 28.1 in 2002. The average number of students in a class was 34.9 in 2002. Four-year educational study at a teacher’s university is required of an elementary school teacher.
Upon completion of elementary school, children in the twelve to fourteen age group enter the middle school system for seventh to ninth grade courses. The student-teacher ratio for middle schools in 2002 was 19.3, while the comparable figure for 1970 was 42.3. |
 |
There are two types of high schools in the Republic of Korea, general and vocational. Applicants for vocational high schools (covering agriculture, engineering, business and maritime studies) have a choice of schools and are admitted through examinations administered by each school. The curriculum at vocational high schools is usually 40-60 percent general courses with the remainder being vocational courses. As of 2002, there were 741 vocational high schools with 535,363 students. Among general high schools, there are several specialized high schools in the areas of arts, physical education, science, and foreign languages. The goal of these schools is to provide appropriate education for students with special ability in certain fields.
Courses at general high schools tend to center around preparations for entering universities. As of 2002, there were 1,254 general high schools with 1.22 million students. Combining the two types of high school together, the ratio of middle school graduates advancing to high school was 99.5 in 2002. |
The curriculum, revised in 1997, introduces ten basic common subjects, individual projects and special activities that cover the ten years from the first year of elementary school through to the first year of high school. It also includes new elective subjects for the final two years of high school that are designed to provide students greater direction in discovering their aptitudes and more choices in choosing their future careers.
The new curricula were put into effect, beginning with kindergartens, in 2000. The introduction of the curricula in elementary schools started with the first and second grades in 2000, followed by the 3rd and 4th grades in 2001 and by the 5th and 6th grades in 2002. In middle schools and high schools, it was applied to first year students and freshmen in 2001 and 2002 respectively. |
There are several different types of institutions of higher learning in the Republic of Korea: colleges and universities with four-year undergraduate programs (six years for medical and dental colleges), four-year teacher’s universities, two-year junior vocational colleges, an air and correspondence university, open universities, and miscellaneous schools of collegiate status with two- or four-year programs such as nursing schools and theological seminaries. As of 2002, there were 358 institutions of higher learning in Korea, with a total of 3.31 million students and 59,750 faculty members.
Colleges and universities in Korea operate under strict enrollment limits. The eligibility of each applicant is determined by the student’s high school records and national standardized test results. In addition to this, certain colleges and universities require an additional entrance essay test administered by each institution since 1996.
In 2002, the ratio of high school graduates who advanced to institutions of higher learning was 87 percent for general high schools and 49.8 percent for vocational high schools. |
APPLY TO TEACH IN SOUTH KOREA NOW
APPLY NOW to Teach ESL in South Korea and start your adventure with a great company that will protect your interests and maximize every aspect of your experience.
|
Critical Comments on Education in Korea - written by Cassandra Taylor This is a perspective of someone who is in a small relatively new institute and is the only native speaker there. We have three Korean teachers and myself. Often I feel that my role there is more about providing the students
Read more .... |
|
|
|
