Schools to have English-only zones

Students at junior and senior high schools in Seoul will be able to learn English conversation in a zone for exclusive use of English.

They also are required to take the course for serving the community, a compulsory subject, for more than 10 hours annually. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced those and other steps on Monday as the main subjects of its second-phase (2001-2004) New Wave Movement.

Boosting English education:

Every school will designate a specific area such as a stand, a rest area or an English classroom, as an English-only zone where everybody may speak only in English. Also, students at junior and senior high schools will learn living English for the first five minutes of every English lesson. The office plans to supply relevant living English-teaching materials to schools. In 2002, it will introduce a new system to certify the capability of using living English and evaluate students¡¯ English conversation ability to record the results on their school life documents.

Community service mandatory:

All students at junior and senior high schools will have to take a course on providing community service for more than 10 hours annually. The step will be implemented on a gradual basis -- first-years at junior high schools in 2001, first-years at senior high schools and first- and second-years at junior high schools in 2002, for instance. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will set up an information guide center for the service activities at its 11 regional educational offices to provide students with relevant information.

In addition, it will push ahead with establishing the Seoul International Senior High School (planned for 2003) exclusively for Korean children who were brought up abroad and have returned home, and foreign students residing in Korea. At the same time, it will operate four experimental primary schools for lessons on a five-day week until 2003.