Words First Again….

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Development, Yuen Deok-hong already has elicited much criticism with his careless proposal on education policies since the beginning of his inauguration. However, he once again caused problems when he suggested reform of the school system and then cancelled it due to sever criticism of the plan.

It has been reported that Deputy Prime Minister Yuen stated he will proceed with collecting public opinion regarding the reformation plan of the existing school system from `6 year elementary à 3 year middle à 3 year high à 4 year university education` to `5 year elementary à 5 year middle & high à 3 year university education` at an unofficial interview with the press on Saturday.

The suggestion received tremendous interest since it suggested a reduction in the current 16 years of education period consisting of elementary, middle, high and university education to 13 years along with the fact that it will bring about enormous change in the overall society.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Yuen volunteered for a press conference on Saturday morning and explained, “I just expressed my personal opinion in a casual atmosphere with an unexpected reporter. I hope you all understand my suggestion is my own personal opinion that it has not been given any more practical examination.”

Even then he clarified, “Since the current school system has been maintained for about 50 years, it is time to reexamine reform of the school system in the long term -- looking ahead 20 to 30 years. It is absolutely necessary to train and educate professionals by establishing a specialized graduate school system in various fields after reducing the university education term to 3 years.”

“I have about 50 to 60 educational plans for general educational reform such as changing the School of Medicine & School of Law at Seoul National University as well as establishing a multi-lateral evaluation system for teaching staff. I will be able to discuss these plans at the Educational Reform Committee under the direct control of the President, which is to be established in the near future”, stated Deputy Prime Minister Yuen.

The deputy prime minister, however, could not provide explanations as to what grounds his `5-3-3 school system` was derived. Even the executive members of the Ministry of Education were taken aback when he said, “I was just thinking about it on my own”.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuen asked for understanding, “Since I was a professor, it is not so easy to distinguish official and personal expressions after taking up public office. I apologize sincerely for thinking and behaving in such a manner as a public figure.”

A teacher`s association spokesperson criticized, “I wonder how long we have to deal with this? Reformation is important but I`m not sure if he is capable of leading this enormous educational administration.”

The Ministry of Education stated, “Reform of the school system based on the suggestions of Deputy Prime Minister Yeun is surely revolutionary.”

Whenever the modification of the college entrance system as well as methods for resolving local educational problems met with limitations, reform of the school system was discussed several times but always failed to be executed.

`The Education Reform Council`, an educational consultation organization under the former President Chun Doo-whan, presented a reformation plan in 1986 to change the school system to `5 year elementary à 3 year middle à 4 year high à 4 year university education beginning with 1st grade elementary school students in 1992 but it was never passed.

Moreover, the Educational Reform Committee during the presidency of former President Kim Yeong-sam, researched changing the current March Semester System to the September Semester System like other developed countries but this was dropped because the social and economic impact was considered too big.

Critics say that if university education is reduced to 3 years, the length of education will be too short compared with other developed countries and there will be many problems such as university education in Korea not receiving recognition for study abroad programs.

Moreover, dominant opinions state that this is not a simple issue since military service and other important societal programs must be taken into consideration as well.

In-Chul Lee inchul@donga.com