University-Affiliated Online Science Gifted Education Now Open to Everyone

Ministry of Science and ICT Announces Finalized Plan for 2022 Science Gifted Education Project

Photo of the Science Gifted Education Center. Not related to the article.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] From this year, anyone who wishes can receive science gifted education through university-affiliated online courses.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 11th that it will invest a total of 14.5 billion KRW this year to implement the '2022 Science Gifted Nurturing Project,' which includes this plan.

First, science gifted education centers established by 27 universities will jointly develop an online 'pre-education' course to provide science gifted education opportunities to everyone, while strengthening the operation of experiment- and inquiry-centered courses. In other words, to allow students to experience deep thinking, the university-affiliated science gifted education centers will expand and reorganize the 'STEM Thinking Classroom' into the 'STEM+I Thinking Classroom.' Through openness and sharing, it also plans to support the enhancement of mathematics, science, and artificial intelligence (AI) and software (SW) convergence competencies for general middle and high school students. Utilizing experts from universities, government-funded research institutes, industries, and science museums, it will comprehensively support not only the strengthening of math and science competencies of general middle and high school students but also the enhancement of AI and SW competencies.

Additionally, to support in-depth creative research (R&E) activities of students from science high schools and science (arts) gifted schools, multi-year research support will be actively initiated following autonomous topic-type and designated topic-type research. Especially at a time approaching the era of a 30 trillion KRW national research and development (R&D) budget, comprehensive support programs will be provided to strengthen research ethics and emotional cultivation for science gifted students to grow into future science and technology researchers suitable for this scale. Over the past two years, on-site teachers from science high schools and science (arts) gifted schools have participated in directly developing a 'future-oriented educational innovation class model,' which will be opened and shared for use by teachers nationwide. For outstanding talents who have achieved visible results with excellent capabilities, such as winners of the International Science Olympiad, efforts will be made to induce continuous public interest and explore support measures to help them grow into global science and technology talents through national support. Through support for social contribution activities such as educational donations by participating students, a virtuous cycle structure will be created not only for individual growth but also for the development of the nation and society.

Kang Sang-wook, Director of the Future Talent Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "To lead the future centered on science and technology, discovering and nurturing science gifted students, including potential gifted students, is of utmost importance." He added, "Throughout this year, through the establishment and operation of governance including science gifted education institution officials and related experts, we will look back on over 20 years of science gifted education and establish the '4th Comprehensive Plan for Discovering and Nurturing Science Gifted Students' as a macro mid- to long-term development plan."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.