By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo pledged Friday the government will expand investment in public education, saying better educational services are key to raising the country's global competitiveness.
``The most effective way to build a competitive nation is to nurture talent through aggressive investment in public education,'' Han said in a ceremony in Seoul to mark Teachers' Day. ``Improving educational services is one of our key policy goals. We will do our utmost to ensure autonomy of schools, improve services for students and parents, and take better care of students from less-privileged families so that they can continue studying without worrying about money.''
Han said the administration was preparing various policies ``to meet global standards of public education,'' calling for the full support from teachers and parents for the reforms. The government is also making efforts to address the rising household burden from private education and soaring tuition fees at universities, he said.
According the latest data on public education costs from the OECD, Korean parents are spending the most for their children among 26 member countries surveyed.
Their spending accounted for 2.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006, compared with the OECD average of 0.8 percent.
The government's expenditure on public education, however, stood at 4.3 percent of GDP, lower than the OECD average of 5 percent, indicating Korean parents are depending heavily on private tutoring due to their dissatisfaction with public education.
``We are reviewing suggestions from experts to increase the quality of public education,'' a spokesman from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said. ``The suggestions include increasing subsidies for public schools; expanding educational infrastructure, such as computers and equipment for science experiments; and expanding scholarships for talented students from poor families.''
President Lee Myung-bak earlier said he would focus on ``normalizing'' college education before taking any action to solve problems in elementary, middle and high schools, indicating an overhaul of the state-run college entrance exam. However, he made it clear that the government will refrain from intervening in the way universities choose new students.
Lee's remarks indicate, according to education officials, the administration will ensure autonomy of universities in forming policies on student recruitment and school tuition, while, at the same time, pushing for reform in public education and the state-run admission test.