'7-Year-Old Enrollment' Not Included in National Tasks... Ministry of Education Says "Aiming to Ensure a High-Quality Starting Line"

"Strengthening National Education Responsibility to Close Educational Gaps, Policy Goal of National Agenda"
Gradual Admission at 25% Each Stage, Accommodating 320,000 from 400,000 over 4 Years
Decision on Maintaining International High Schools to Be Included in Year-End High School System Reform Plan

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] On the 1st, the Ministry of Education explained that the reason for promoting the policy of lowering the school starting age to 7, which was not included in the president's pledges or national tasks, is "to ensure a high-quality starting point."

At the regular briefing with the press corps on the same day, a Ministry of Education official stated, "The policy goal of the national tasks is to strengthen the national education responsibility system and eliminate educational disparities," adding, "Although lowering the school starting age is not specified in the national tasks, we included it in this work report to have the state guarantee safe and high-quality education from the starting line by integrating our children into public education early."

The Ministry of Education official added, "We plan to proceed after sufficient prior agreement through public opinion gathering, expert consultation, and public discussion via the National Education Committee."

The Ministry of Education projected that if early school enrollment is phased in by 25% starting in 2025, the number of first-grade elementary school entrants will sequentially decrease from 400,000 to 320,000 over four years.

The Ministry of Education forecasted the expected number of first-grade elementary school entrants over the next five years if children born at age 5 are admitted in three-month intervals starting in 2025 as follows: ▲ 2025: all children born in 2018 and those born from January to March 2019, totaling 402,491 ▲ 2026: children born from April to December 2019 and January to June 2020, totaling 363,176 ▲ 2027: children born from July to December 2020 and January to September 2021, totaling 331,544 ▲ 2028: children born from October to December 2021 and all children born in 2022, totaling 325,625 ▲ 2029: all children born in 2023, totaling 260,500.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Park Soon-ae also mentioned in a radio interview on the same day that "a plan to advance enrollment by one month over 12 years is also being considered." Regarding this, a Ministry of Education official explained, "There were concerns about capacity issues if enrollment is advanced by one-quarter every three months, and the 12-month plan was mentioned as a way to alleviate that."

The Ministry of Education stated that while autonomous private high schools (jasago) will be maintained, the plan to abolish foreign language high schools will be included in the 'High School System Reform Plan' to be announced at the end of the year after reviewing the reorganization plan for international high schools.

A Ministry of Education official explained, "Foreign language high schools aim to cultivate foreign language specialists, but they are considered not aligned with future society, so we are reviewing plans to abolish or convert them into specialized foreign language curriculum schools," adding, "Regarding international high schools, we will conduct thorough reviews to determine their alignment with future society and include specific details in the upcoming high school system reform plan."

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