By Kwon Mee-yoo
The government has promised that migrant children, whether registered or not, will be offered equal opportunities in education. Most of them, however, are still being discriminated against systematically — they have difficulty getting admitted to and registered at schools leading many of them to quit for various reasons.
The Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea (JCMK) conducted research on the condition of migrant children’s education at the request of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
It surveyed 168 migrant children, 96 of their parents, 67 teachers who have taught them and other educational government officials. Currently, there are some 50,000 multicultural children under 18 living in Korea.
“About 35 percent of these children were being raised at home before receiving public education, which widens the gap between Korean children who go to preschools and private institutes before starting elementary school,” a JCMK official said.
The most difficult thing for them was the Korean language and it was a barrier for entering elementary school.
“Sixty-one percent said it was difficult to be admitted to elementary schools because of poor Korean ability and some 15 percent were denied admission by schools,” the official said. “The children wanted to take Korean language classes before entering school.”
The students also lacked friendly interchanges — 59 percent of them attending alternative schools said they didn’t have a Korean friend who they could share secrets with and 42 percent had never visited a Korean friend’s house.
The biggest reason for the children to quit school was difficulty following the lessons. But the habitual crackdown on unregistered foreigners and the obstacles of getting along with Korean students also accounted for their dropping out of school.
The NHRC suggested the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology guarantee the secondary educational rights of these children last December. Upon the proposal, the ministry pledged to allow even the children of unregistered immigrants access to education and announced the revised law in August.
According to the revisions, unregistered immigrants’ children can enter or transfer to middle school by submitting proof of residence or a housing lease contract.
Seog Won-jeong, the chief of the Association for Migrant Workers’ Human Rights, said all migrant children should get public education, despite their status here.
“The education authorities have to understand the characteristics of immigrant children and support their learning,” Seog said. “They should also restrict cracking down on illegal migrants based on the Immigration Act, at least not on school grounds.”
Other countries also make efforts not to let children of immigrants fall behind in the public education system.
In the United States, one out of nine U.S. residents is a migrant. The government there initiated the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 to provide additional study time and support for the English education of the children of immigrant families.
Unregistered migrant children have also been able to receive public education without restrictions after the 1982 Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe.