Slight Increase in Quotas of Education Departments

The quotas for the departments of Early Childhood Education and the departments of Special Education will increase slightly, and yet the quotas of departments related to the secondary education will lessen next year.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) announced the quotas of the national universities of education and the colleges of education for 2002 year, which totals 23,890, increased by 478 from this year.

Considering the lack of the elementary school teachers, the Ministry of Education increased by 120 the quotas for 6 national universities of education as follows; the Pusan National University of Education (30), Kwangju National University of Education (30), Chooncheon National University of Education (20), Cheonju National University of Education (20), Cheongju National University of Education (10), and Cheju National University of Education (10).

The quota for the middle and high school teachers will be reduced since the existing teachers are sufficient: Seoul National University (51), Ewha Womans University (4), Korea University (1), etc.

The ministry froze the quota for the professional colleges in order to improve the level of the kindergarten teachers, and decided to increase by 198 the quotas for the departments of early childhood education of 9 provincial colleges, including Kangreung College, Pukyong College, and Shilla College.

For special education, the ministry increased the quota for the early childhood special education departments by 60, and enlarged the quotas for the special education departments and the special athletic education departments by 130 and 60 respectively.

Lee Jin-Yeong ecolee@donga.com