Education bridges Korea, Kenya more closely
By Kim Se-jeong
Kenyan Ambassador to Korea Ngovi Kitau has high hopes for an international high school that just opened recently in Kenya.
“It is the best bilateral and exchange program that even happened since 1964” when the governments of the two countries agreed to establish diplomatic ties, the ambassador told The Korea Times in his office last Wednesday.
Mahanaim International High School opened in Nairobi, the capital, earlier this month. Mahanaim is a biblical word referring to “soldiers of Christ.” Founded by the Christian International Youth Fellowship, the school has 47 Korean students and 20 local Kenyan students enrolled.
“They eat together, live in a dormitory, do exercises together, and attend the same classes, which combined is the best interaction,” said the ambassador, who was invited to the opening ceremony.
But the founder originally had a different vision.
The school was originally designed to be an alternative choice for Korean students, who were under pressure from the otherwise test-score driven education system.
Um Kil-hyun, one of the coordinators for the school project, said the school started with the idea to give a new opportunity to those who were lagging in the regular studies.
“Here (in Korea) if you aren’t among the top at school, you feel like a loser, and some students completely give up doing anything.”
The four-year curriculum includes math, languages, science, social science and music. The traditional Korean martial art of taekwondo is compulsory. Students are required to live in a dormitory, and the average expense for each student is 1.2 million won every month.
To the ambassador, the school is a small but encouraging piece of evidence that Korea’s interest in Africa is growing.
Contacts between Kenyan and Korean businesses have grown, and so has the volume of tourists and students.
A surging interest is in part attributed to the Korean government’s greater efforts to engage Africa.
Korea’s trade-driven economy is constantly searching to find new partners.
Korea mainly exports to China, Japan, and others countries in Asia and the Middle East.
Yet as the unrest in northern Africa attests, the export-driven Korean economy is always vulnerable to geopolitical threats. The ambassador suggested that Korea engage Africa more boldly.
For example, he said Korea’s development aid for Africa should be more generous. The amount of development aid to Africa is increasing, yet still insignificant compared to Asia.
“There are many things we can do together,” he said with emphasis.