“Desire to Abolish High School Standardization”

The Korea Development Institute (KDI) along with 15 civil and public research institutes expressed their opinion that Korea should abolish the standardization of high schools and provide various specialized education in order meet the standards of an advanced industrialized country by raising international competitiveness. It is anticipated to create denouncements about the education system as it opposes the policy standardizing high schools for those 30 years from 1070.

KDI announced on the 28th that the report titled `Vision 2011`, which is the result of a yearlong study by 16 research institutes to submit to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, suggests that the standardization of high schools should be abolished to provide a desirable future image of Korea and strategy for national development.

The report insists that the control over private schools by educational authorities should be restricted to junior high schools, which is compulsory, and allow private high schools and colleges to control their own institutions, and parents and students to choose schools as they want.

An official of KDI said, "It is not acceptable to educate high school students under uniform standards in the 21st century which requires independence and creativity. We should seriously consider the measure to abolish the standardizing system to settle the increasing private education expenses and normalize high school education."

The official emphasized, "Colleges should have rights to select students, and admission tuition paid by donation should be allowed. Quota for colleges should be abolished from private colleges, and branch school of foreign colleges should be allowed."

In relation to this, an official of MFE explained, "It may cause confusion to abolish high school standardization all at once. We are preparing measures for various specialized education systems by increasing self-supporting high schools, to which three schools were designated, to 16 this year, and liberalizing the foundation of schools for foreigners."

16 research institutes including the KDI, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, The Korea Transport Institute, Korea Institute of Finance, and Korea Economic Research Institute are participating in the `Vision 2011` whose final report is to be published in late February.

Chan-Sun Hong hcs@donga.com