By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Foreign schools will come under stricter supervision from Korean authorities under recent regulation revisions.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Tuesday some rules governing foreign schools here will be eased despite others giving more authority to the ministry to supervise them. The new rules go into effect today.
``Many Korean parents want to send their children to English-speaking schools here, and some irregularities have occurred. The new regulations will enable us to supervise the international schools more closely,'' a ministry official said.
Under the new regulations, a Korean national wishing to enroll in the schools has to have studied overseas for three years, down from the previous five.
However, the quota of Korean students will be restricted to a maximum of 50 percent of the total number of students. Korean nationals with dual citizenship and foreign residency must prove they have spent more than three years abroad for enrollment to prevent the admission of students with ``purchased'' residence cards who haven't actually resided overseas.
``As opposed to the relaxation of some rules, rule-breaking schools will face tougher sanctions from now on,'' the ministry official said.
Graduates from the schools can advance to Korean universities if they take state-run exams to gain a certificate of high school graduation to apply for admission. Foreign schools seeking to enable their students to do this must offer more than 102 hours of Korean language and Korean history classes, respectively.
Nonprofit foreign corporations, foreign religious groups and Korean educational foundations will be able to set up international schools eligible for financial support from the Korean government. Currently, only individual foreigners can establish foreign schools through foundations.
There are 46 foreign schools across the country with about 11,000 enrolled students. Among them, Seoul has 20 and the city plans to build three more by 2012.