Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education Announces Customized 'Multicultural Education Support Plan'

Promotion of the '4 Major Tasks' Including Global Talent Development

The Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education is strengthening support for customized multicultural education, including the activation of bilingual education.

On the 20th, the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education held a policy briefing and announced the "Customized Multicultural Education Support Plan" utilizing regional characteristics.

According to the Office of Education, among the total 199,630 students in the Jeonnam area, the number of multicultural students is 11,367, accounting for the highest nationwide rate of 5.29%. Over the past five years, the total number of students in Jeonnam has decreased by about 10%, but the number of multicultural students has increased by about 16%.

On the 20th, the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education held a policy briefing and announced a "Customized Multicultural Education Support Plan" utilizing regional characteristics.

In particular, elementary school students are the largest group with 6,511 students, followed by 2,738 middle school students, 1,089 high school students, 970 kindergarteners, and 50 special education students.

Among them, Vietnamese students are the most numerous with 5,374 (47.28%), followed by Filipino 1,820 (16.01%), Chinese 1,669 (14.68%), Cambodian 877 (7.72%), Japanese 639 (5.62%), Mongolian 219 (1.93%), Thai 222 (1.95%), and Central Asian 146 (1.28%).

The Office of Education has set four major tasks to proactively implement multicultural education policies with the goal of "nurturing harmonious global talents who learn and grow together": strengthening customized Korean language education, activating bilingual education, supporting student growth centered on global competencies, and reinforcing community-based support systems.

Kim Jeong-hee, Director of Policy, stated, "We will actively organize Korean language education curricula in school educational activities by strengthening Korean language education, and actively operate training courses for Korean language instructors targeting teachers and migrant women. We will also support the improvement of Korean language proficiency for multicultural family parents by utilizing family centers and village schools to establish a customized learning support system."

She added, "We will develop educational materials in bilingual languages and train bilingual instructors targeting migrant women to utilize them as bilingual instructors in schools, including translation and interpretation personnel. We plan to conduct play- and experience-centered bilingual education and expand the functions of foreign language experience centers by region to operate regionally specialized bilingual education programs tailored to local conditions."

Furthermore, she emphasized, "To operate Jeonnam-specialized programs for strengthening global competencies, we will sign a business agreement with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education in Vietnam in June and proceed with educational exchanges focused on language, history, culture, and arts."

She also said, "We will establish multicultural education governance and an integrated multilingual translation and interpretation support system, including hosting a 100-person roundtable discussion led by the Jeonnam Provincial Council. Through online and offline translation and interpretation services, we will provide frequent support during parent consultations and educational activities at schools and plan to create a multicultural education valley."

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