Jeju cultivating global citizens

Lee Seok-mun, superintendent of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education, speaks to students in a classroom at Hamdok Middle School in Jeju City in this Aug. 18, 2014, file photo. Lee visited the school to see how a free-learning semester program was run. All middle schools on the island introduced the program in the second semester of last year. / Courtesy of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education

Education office to boost exchanges with foreign schools

Lee Seok-mun, superintendent of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education

By Chung Hyun-chae

Lee Seok-mun, superintendent of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education, said he will make a greater effort to develop students into global citizens.

He noted that Jeju Island has strived to raise its education level to global standards since it was designated as a free international city in 2002.

“We encourage our students to enter prestigious foreign universities, instead of local schools in Seoul and its surrounding areas,” Lee told The Korea Times.

In order to help students broaden their horizons, the education office plans to strengthen academic cooperation and exchanges with higher educational institutions abroad, especially in Asian countries.

The office signed an agreement with Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, last month. Under the accord, students of Jeju Island can apply for both universities.

The education office plans to sign agreements with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, the Shanghai Education Commission in China and a regional education office in Mongolia later this year.

“As a number of students from Northeast Asian countries, including China and Japan, and Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Thailand, have come to Jeju, our students should learn how to get along with them,” Lee said.

“We are planning to make partnerships with European or American institutions as well in the future.”

Lee stressed the importance of extracurricular activities as part of efforts to cultivate global citizens.

“We encourage each student to be able to play at least one musical instrument from elementary school,” Lee said. “Students also benefit from field studies which take place in the natural environment around the island.”

He said a growing number of families from Seoul and other cities are moving to Jeju in order to learn more about nature.

“We accept about 500 elementary students from other parts of the country every year,” Lee said.

He said that the island provides support programs to help those students and their families settle there.

“They are offered low-cost rental houses, which are one of the incentives to attract students and their families to the island,” Lee said. “I expect more parents and students to come to the island for globalization education and the related benefits.”

Jeju is also pushing to reform its high school entry system.

Lee stressed that middle school seniors on the island take a unified entrance examination in December to enter one of the eight ordinary high schools in Jeju City. Only students whose grades meet certain standards are eligible to take that exam.

“Under the current high school entrance system, middle school seniors suffer more than high school seniors from excessive competition for high schools,” Lee said.

There are 30 high schools on the island, eight of which are ordinary high schools located in the center of Jeju City.

“Considering that about 400,000 out of the island’s total population of 550,000 are living in Jeju City, the majority of students are eager to enter one of the eight ordinary schools as it does not take as long to get to school,” Lee said.

But the truth is that only 55 percent of middle school seniors are accepted by those eight schools.

“The more students covet ordinary schools, the better quality of education the schools provide. This widens the education gap between schools in the city and those in rural areas,” Lee added.

He pointed out that entering the ordinary schools in Jeju City is on par with entering special high schools in Seoul that focus on foreign languages, science and math.

He is considering transforming some high schools in rural areas into those specializing in arts or physical education. Currently Jeju has no such special-purpose high schools.

“We are also considering introducing unique curriculums at each school based on its geographic characteristics,” Lee said. “For example, we are planning to convert Seongsan High school, which is located in Seogwipo City, on the southern part of the island, to a national maritime high school as early as next year.”

The maritime high school will be designed to prepare students for the maritime industry.

“I expect many students to go to that school because the maritime industry is a key growth engine on the island,” Lee said.

The Jeju education office has been taking full advantage of the island’s geographical features in the education field.

The education office has introduced a free learning semester to all middle schools on the island since the second semester of last year.

The free-learning semester is a pilot program to allow middle school students to spend one semester without taking tests to explore their future career path.

“We encourage schools to actively use the natural environment of the island to run their free-learning semester more effectively,” Lee said.

According to Lee, many schools launched ecology education programs where students explore careers related to the natural environment.

Other schools created a class to learn the Jeju dialect as a free-learning semester program to promote the island’s traditional culture.

“We are short of experts or educational institutions that can help us with the new program. So we are trying to recruit artists and writers who have moved to Jeju so they can serve as lecturers during the free-learning semester,” Lee added.