By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The government plans to ease regulations on the establishment of elite high schools in line with President-elect Lee Myung-bak's pledge to liberalize education regulations.
Ministry officials said that the ministry has in principal agreed over handing the minister's elite school establishment permits to local education superintendents.
However, a transition team member said it has yet to make a final decision on the issue.
The current system requires that local educational authorities consult with the education minister over the establishment of schools in their region. The permits were initially given to the superintendents in 2001, but rising criticism they were allowing the establishment of too many schools drove the ministry to take it back in 2006.
Experts say this will give local educators practical autonomy in establishing foreign language or science high schools once again.
Also, the ministry has come up with several other ideas to carry out Lee's plan to ease regulations on public education.
The bans on holding private mock college scholastic ability tests, eight o'clock classes (which meant students could not come before nine) or installing science major classes at foreign language high schools are also likely to be lifted. Those regulations were some of the incumbent government's efforts to narrow the gap between schools and build an egalitarian education system.
Lee, on the other hand, has called for boosting students' global competitiveness by getting rid of regulation obstacles. He has pledged to help the private sector establish as many as 100 elite high schools and 50 specialized high schools and give autonomy in managing them.
However, the moves are drawing criticism from some education experts. They said allowing foreign language high schools to run science major classes will see more students applying to medical schools, which is against the founding purpose of the institution. Also, allowing individual mock examinations and conducting classes at 8 a.m. will burden the students who are already suffering from a massive workload, they said.