By Kim Rahn
Fifth and sixth-grade elementary school textbooks will contain up to 300 Chinese characters, starting 2019, to help students better understand the Korean vocabulary originating from Chinese words, according to the Ministry of Education, Friday.
The ministry decision came after years-long debate over whether to make Chinese characters part of Korean language and literature textbooks for elementary schoolchildren. Middle and high school students learn Chinese characters but elementary schoolchildren have not been studying them for almost four decades.
It is estimated that around 50 percent of the Korean vocabulary has Chinese influence.
According to the ministry, Chinese characters will accompany Korean words that need clarification, in textbooks for fifth and sixth graders ― not only for Korean language and literature but for any subject.
The ministry will designate 300 characters first and textbook authors can select from the pool.
“The characters will be used only to boost students’ understanding of Korean terms,” a ministry official said. “Not to put pressure on students, we will make sure schools do not force students to memorize the Chinese characters or to take a test of them.”
One textbook chapter may have up to three characters, he said.
In 2014, the ministry said it would consider including Chinese characters in elementary school textbooks.
But hangeul-related civic groups opposed the idea, saying it will only aggravate academic pressure on students and cause more private tutoring.
“Under the new measure, the pronunciation and meaning of the Chinese characters will be put together with the Korean words, and students without prior knowledge about the characters will have no difficulty learning and understanding them,” the ministry official said.