Songdo International School to Employ 5-3-4 System

Two international schools, which will cover a 12-year course from elementary school to middle and high school, will be opened in New Songdo International City, Incheon.

On May 5, New Songdo City Development LLC, (NSC, a joint corporation of Gale Co. and POSCO Engineering and Construction) declared its plan to install a kindergarten and two 12-year course international schools, which will consist of five years of elementary school, three years of middle school, and four years of high school courses, inside the International Business Sector of New Songdo City, an area of roughly 20,000 pyeong or 164 acres.

The schools will accommodate up to 2,100 pupils and will be made up of small classes of around 10-12 students per staff member. One of them is to open early in January 2007, and the tuition fee is reported to be around 20,000 dollars (20 million won) a year.

English will be exclusively used within school boundaries, while all curriculums will follow the tracks of those of standard North American independent preparatory schools at a level where their students can advance to America’s finest institutions of higher education.

High school students will be able to choose between AP (Advanced Placement, a program that offers students college credit for classes taken in high school) and IB (International Baccalaureate, an international diploma given upon completion of study) courses.

Regardless of their nationality, students entering and completing the IB curriculum during the final two years of high school will receive an international diploma, recognized by all colleges around the world.

The Harvard Advisory Group, in charge of attracting foreign international schools, responded to NSC’s request and announced, “We are negotiating with two to three schools, including distinguished elementary, middle, and high schools located along the east coast of the United States.” It has been said that the schools being considered are prestigious boarding schools such as Lawrence, Hotchkiss, Groton, Taft, and Loomis Chaffe.

Hee-Jae Park min07@donga.com