Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
'Exchange programs help students, teachers upgrade global perspective'
Park Jung-jae, center, principal of Shindang Elementary School in Seoul, poses with students and staff at the school in this October 2018 photo. Courtesy of Park Jung-jae
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
When Shindang Elementary School Principal Park Jung-jae took office in 2017, he decided to provide the students and teachers with opportunities to learn global perspectives and cultural diversity through exchange programs with other schools abroad.
His determination came from his experience as the principal of the Korean International School in Singapore from 2014 to 2016, when Park saw many teachers and students there nurture their communication skills with people from around the world through international exchange programs.
“I realized that the ability to communicate is highly required for our students who are living in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so I decided to form a partnership with Huamin Primary School in Singapore,” Park said.
Singapore is adopting a project-based learning method that focuses on four skills ― creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration ― and encouraged by UNESCO, he said.
As a part of the exchange program, students at the two schools made short films on a common theme, “Save the Gaia,” in 2019.
Park said the project provided an opportunity to understand cultural diversity as students broadened their perceptions of different cultures and life styles while participating in the program.
As news of the international exchange program with Huamin spread, Shindang Elementary School became popular in the education community there, and there has been a series of visits by officials from the education ministry and teachers of other primary schools in Singapore.
As of September last year, 10 more schools in Singapore and one in Myanmar asked Shindang to hold exchange programs with them.
In January 2020, teachers from Shindang visited Huamin to observe the education system there and discuss the teaching methods of the two countries. The two schools planned to have more exchange programs for teachers and students that year, but the plan was scrapped due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, the teachers of both schools did hold discussions virtually through a video conference Nov. 27 under the theme, of “Changes and Countermeasures of Schools in Two Countries in the COVID-19 era.”
“I wanted to instill confidence that international exchanges are not difficult for teachers although they may not be fluent in English. In addition, it will be a good experience to upgrade their global capabilities,” Park said.
In particular, he would like to share solutions to problems that have cropped up in classrooms during the pandemic in both countries by looking at the coronavirus responses especially in the education field.
“I would like to share practical ideas on various teaching methods in both countries, which are advanced countries in education, by developing the exchange programs in the future,” he said.