Controversy grows over Korea’s plans to adopt digital textbooks

Parents are increasingly concerned about introducing AI digital textbooks in schools that are planned for next year. Many parents do not welcome the change when children’s excessive use of digital devices is becoming a social issue. They are concerned that AI textbooks will hinder students' focus, literacy, and ability to learn. Another factor that makes parents anxious is that Korea will be the first country in the world to introduce digital textbooks.

A public consent petition requesting to postpone digital textbooks was brought to the attention of the National Assembly, with around 56,505 signatures. The issue was transferred to the Education Committee.

There is significant opposition from educational circles as well. Nine out of 17 city and provincial education superintendents across the country expressed a ‘cautious view’ on introducing digital textbooks. The National Council of Metropolitan and Provincial Superintendents of Education also recently sent an opinion to the Ministry of Education, claiming the need to gradually adjust the pace of introduction by making improvements to digital textbooks, citing reasons including financial burdens and personal information protection.

The introduction of digital textbooks has been a key project driven by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho. Starting in March next year, AI digital textbooks will be applied first to mathematics, English, Information Technology and Korean for third and fourth graders, students in the first grade of middle school and first grade of high school. These students have been dubbed the first “Lee Ju-ho” generation, a pun from the “first Lee Hae-chan generation,” named after the former Minister of Education, who introduced radical educational changes many years ago. Initially, the Ministry of Education had planned to introduce AI digital textbooks in other major subjects such as Korean, science, social studies, and history from 2026. Still, it recently announced that it would ‘adjust the pace’ for introducing subjects in 2025 amid recent public pressure.

Upon reflection, it seems that the Ministry of Education might secretly welcome the strong opposition. After all, schools are not yet equipped with basic infrastructure such as high-speed Internet. The publishers of the English, math, and information technology textbooks, set to be introduced in March next year, will be decided in late December through approval, with a testing period of just three months. Many view this as a decision made without the necessary careful planning.

Sweden, a leader in the world in providing quality education, had planned to introduce digital textbooks in 2017, which was scrapped last year. This policy change was due to public criticism that students’ learning ability and literacy have deteriorated due to excessively digitalized learning methods. In fact, according to the ‘International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS),’ which evaluates the reading ability of fourth-grade elementary school students, the average score of Swedish students fell by 11 points from 555 points in 2016 to 544 points in 2021.

What about Korea? According to a recent survey of 5,848 teachers conducted by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, 91.8% responded that “students’ literacy skills have declined compared to the past.” Many students mistook “starting point” as a swearing word and innocently believed that “genealogy” was “broiled pigs’ meat.” These examples illustrate Korea’s needs to address concerns about the decline in literacy skills while introducing digital textbooks.

Textbooks are the cornerstone of public education. It is crucial that the government revises its plans to adopt digital textbooks, investing more time in refining the system. We must remember that hastily implemented, unsuccessful education policies can jeopardize the future of our students.