By Kang Shin-who
Minister of Education, Science and Technology Lee Ju-ho said Friday he will give top priority to creating a fairer education environment for the second half of the Lee Myung-bak government.
“I believe every student should have an equal opportunity to learn. I am not talking about uniform equal society. I mean children from poor families also should have the chance to receive quality education,” Lee said.
Mentioning the college admission system, the lawmaker-turned-minister said he plans to order an investigation into universities to confirm whether children of professors or school staff have been given special treatment in the process.
“In order to fix a holistic admission system at colleges, we need three important values: trust, fairness and the specialty of admissions officers. On top of this, we will seek student diversity,” he said.
Lee explained that the ministry will introduce a “diversity index of students” in order to encourage colleges to admit candidates with diverse backgrounds.
He also said the ministry will reform state-run college admission tests in order to relieve students of study burdens, setting his sights on cutting down private education costs.
Under the tentative plan, tests of Korean language and literature, math and English will be divided into two sets in accordance with their difficulty level. Students will be able to choose between advanced and normal tests, depending on the colleges or majors they are applying for.
The final version of the test reform plans will be announced at the end of October after opinions from parents and education experts are pooled.
The top educator also touched on the ministry’s move to restrict non-viable private colleges from benefiting from state-run loans.