Moon pledges to ban special-purpose high schools

The presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party announced his education pledges Monday that included the abolition of special-purpose high schools and changing the college entrance test into a qualification exam.

Moon Jae-in agreed on certain points with ruling Saenuri Party rival Park Geun-hye and independent runner Ahn Cheol-soo on the need to curb excessive competition in college admissions, but proposing different measures.

In a news conference at his party`s headquarters in Yeongdeungpo, Moon said, "I will strive to normalize public education by resolving the high school hierarchical system," adding, "Foreign language high schools, international high schools and independent private high schools have failed to promote their original purposes and instead have been transformed into schools guaranteeing high college entrance rates, and they will be turned into general high schools." He said, however, that science schools will be maintained.

Ahn had earlier pledged to abolish the system of giving foreign language schools priority in student selection in the interest of standardization of high school education. Moon, however, went further by promising to abolish special-purpose schools. Special-purpose schools and conservative forces stressing academic excellence are expected to strongly oppose the proposals by Moon and Ahn.

Simplifying procedures for the college entrance exam is the interest of all three candidates. In the ruling party`s presidential primary in July, Park said she would drastically reduce college admissions steps by allowing the submission of rolling admission applications based on academic records and allowing regular admission via scholastic aptitude tests.

Moon pledged to simplify 3,289 college admission procedures into four tracks: admissions based on scholastic aptitude tests, specialty and aptitude, and equal opportunity.

Ahn said he will simplify the admission procedures into four criteria -- scholastic aptitude tests, essays, school records and admissions officers.

While Moon stressed a ban on the high school rating system to remove hierarchy, Ahn proposed selecting 20 percent of college freshmen from underserved students in benchmarking affirmative action of the U.S.

The three candidates also proposed measures to curb excess private education. Moon had the most radical proposal of a basic children`s educational welfare law that bans private education for elementary, middle and high school students excluding those for arts and physical education. He also pledged to eradicate damage caused by private English-language education by devising comprehensive measures to normalize English education.

Ahn took a roundabout way in conveying his desire to curb private education. He proposed a law on scholastic education support to normalize public education and lower private educational costs.

Park`s camp is known to be finalizing plans to reduce private education.

Park and Moon emphasized the need to strengthen education for career development but proposed different approaches. Park pledged customized career consulting services for middle school students before they go on to high school and a job competence assessment system.

Moon proposed "Happy Eighth Grade Project," which aims to help eighth graders seek career opportunities for one or two semesters.

irun@donga.com