Lowering of the Entrance Requirements to Foreigners` Schools Has Been Cancelled

The plan of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources to lower the requirements for Koreans to enter the foreigners` school in Korea is practically being canceled one month prior to the enforcement due to the objection from the Presidential Transition Committee.

However, there is adverse criticism being rising since the Transition Committee objects the policy that the Government already finished legislation notice with objections of some civil organizations.

The Education Ministry announced that it planned to enact the `Regulation for Establishing and Operating a Foreigners` School,` which lowered the entrance requirements from existing minimum residency in foreign countries of 5 years to 3 years and gave even Koreans qualification to establish schools, and to enforce it starting March; however, the Transition Committee requested to re-discuss it after the departure of the new Government saying opinion collection was not sufficient, so it would postpone that plan.

The lowering of the entrance requirements for the foreigners` school is the matter, which has been decided after 3 years of debate since the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Industry and Resources continuously asked to the Education Ministry to improve the education quality of foreigners living in Korea and to prevent the flow out of foreign currencies due to indiscreet early study-abroad.

There are total of 40 foreigners` schools in Korea including 17 American and 17 Chinese schools, and the students are 7,734 and 374 (4.8%) of them are Koreans.

On the other hand, few civil organizations and teachers` associations such as the Civil Movement League for Reformation of Education, the National Teachers` Union, and the National Parents` Association for the Real Education have strongly objected saying that if they lowered the requirements, ill effects such as the sense of incompatibility were predicted due to competition for entrance and expensive tuitions.

However, someone point out that there is a problem that the Transition Committee withheld the policy, which has been pursued in cooperation of related Ministries of the Government and the Arbitration of State Affairs, by accepting assertions of few civil organizations.

The Education Ministry said, “We tried to convince the Transition Committee to lower the requirement to 3 years considering various facts, however, we had to postpone.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy also stated, “The Government can listen to the opinions of civil organizations, but it is not right to be controlled by them,” and “it will be difficult to draw out the agreement of civil organizations although we re-collect their opinions.”

It was known that even inside the Transition Committee, the sufficient discussion was not done because few Congressmen with reform propensity led the reservation of lowering the entrance requirements.

The spokesperson of the Federation of the Korean Teachers` Associations, Hwang, Suk-Geun pointed out, “We must be careful in dealing with issues related to the foreigners` schools,” and “however, if they change the case that has already finished the legislation notice, the confidence for the policy will be dropped, and they cannot avoid the responsibility for putting people in confusion.”

In-Chul Lee inchul@donga.com