Koh Youngsun: "Educational Reform Must Move Forward Despite Concerns Over Side Effects"

May 7, Korea Educational Development Institute "Education Reform Conference"

President Koh Youngsun: "The current education system cannot respond to changing times

Need to expand channels for stakeholder participation and persuade those dire

"The reason educational reform is not happening in the field is that it is all talk and no action, with discussions simply being repeated over and over."

Koh Youngsun, President of the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), stated at the "Education Reform Conference" held on the 7th at the Schubert Hall of the President Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, "We need to stop creating new notebooks and distributing them to the field every time a problem arises. Instead, the government must seriously reflect on what the fundamental problems of our education are, how and which systems need to be changed at their roots, and how to devise and implement plans to resolve these issues. The current government needs the capability to analyze, solve, and design these solutions."

Koh Youngsun, President of the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), is speaking at the 'Education Reform Conference' held at the President Hotel Schubert Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 7th. Korea Educational Development Institute

On this day, President Koh suggested that in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), education should no longer focus on "finding the right answer," but instead shift toward cultivating the ability to ask questions. At the same time, she argued that the system must move away from "selecting a small elite" and "standardized education" to realize the potential of every student and provide customized education.

President Koh said, "In an era of increased volatility and uncertainty, we need a system that is field-oriented and decentralized, rather than uniform and centralized." She explained that a flexible structure that allows for diverse educational experiments at the field level and spreads successful cases is essential.

She also pointed out that Korean education remains stuck in a "selection-centered" structure. Although the national curriculum has long emphasized creativity and critical thinking, in reality, schools still maintain a system centered on written exams and relative evaluation. Koh added that even performance assessments have become overly focused on differentiating students, which has weakened their function for feedback and growth. In particular, she criticized that competition centered on relative evaluation lowers students' life satisfaction and causes excessive competition. Koh stated, "The issues of happiness and suicide rates among Korean adolescents are also not unrelated to the structure of education," and emphasized that education should be transformed from competition with others to growth-centered education that compares oneself to who they were yesterday.

The decision-making structure centered on the central government and education offices was also cited as a problem. She explained that due to a lack of autonomy in the field, administrative burdens on teachers are increasing, and it is difficult to effectively respond to issues such as the infringement of teachers' authority or school violence. She emphasized, "The government and education offices must stop acting as micro-managers controlling the field and instead become 'system designers' who design the educational system."

She criticized the current situation, noting that while "execution" is the most important element in changing education, reform is not being implemented and only repeated discussions take place.

Koh analyzed that several factors are blocking educational reform: ▲ a tendency to halt discussions at the slightest concern about side effects; ▲ difficulties in coordinating among stakeholders; and ▲ insufficient understanding of the root causes of problems. For example, while there is consensus that introducing absolute evaluation could address issues caused by relative evaluation, such as intensifying competition in the classroom and an obsession with fairness, when discussions actually begin, concerns and opposition arise that "absolute evaluation will lead to grade inflation," and in the end, the system remains based on relative evaluation.

Regarding efforts to reduce the influence of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), Koh explained that although discussions often move toward "lowering the difficulty" in response to criticism that high difficulty induces private tutoring, concerns about "reduced discrimination" and the possible revival of university-administered exams when universities gain more autonomy ultimately lead to the maintenance of "high-difficulty questions."

Koh stated, "Rather than stopping discussions out of concern for possible side effects, if something is truly necessary, we must proceed with it and seek complementary measures even if side effects occur." She added, "It is important to appeal to the public that the current education system cannot cope with the changing times or reduce the suffering of children, and to expand the participation of a wide range of stakeholders—not just those directly involved—so that the public can be persuaded in the reform discussion."

Koh concluded, "Educational reform will begin when everyone in the education sector, including the Korea Educational Development Institute, becomes more aware of their responsibilities, sets aside their vested interests, and starts communicating with one another."

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