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| President Moon Jae-in, center, poses with heads of ASEAN member states during the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit at BEXCO in Busan, Nov. 26. / Korea Times photo by Ryu Hyo-jin |
By Kim Jae-heun
Despite government efforts to form strategic partnerships with ASEAN member nations and India, Korean education about these nations was found to be inaccurate and insufficient, a report showed, Wednesday.
The Korean Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (KISEAS) reviewed middle and high school history textbooks upon the request of the Ministry of Education.
The study has come amid the Moon Jae-in government's New Southern Policy, which seeks economic cooperation between Korea and Southeast Asia and India. Under the initiative, exchanges between Korea and ASEAN countries in various sectors have grown, and Korea held the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit in Busan last month.
However, local scholars with KISEAS pointed out that Korea's education system has failed to improve the public's biased perceptions of those emerging economic partners.
They said that in Korea most Southeast Asian countries are still perceived as undeveloped and impoverished nations, with such perceptions included in some middle school and high school textbooks.
"Korean textbooks have a strong tendency to recognize the history of Southeast Asian countries as that on the 'fringe.' The narrative is focused on the external influence of China and India on the countries, and some of the content overly relates ASEAN countries' history to that of India or sees it from a China-centered perspective," the report said.
The study also said some of the names were even written wrong.
When referring to India, many textbooks described it as a heavily religious country or a poor nation with big economic potential. The report presumed Korean academia has accepted Western countries' biased analysis of India as there have only been a few scholars in Korea studying Indian history.
According to the study, 42 out of 67 middle school and high school teachers said they teach Southeast Asian history for an hour or two a year, if at all.
With a lack of education, many students lacked even basic knowledge of Southeast Asia: When asked to write the names of Southeast Asian countries, 67 percent of 105 high school seniors could write four or less, and 15 percent named only one.
The study said the Korean education sector needs to change its practice of explaining Southeast Asia and India together.
"Textbooks and history books should show Southeast Asia played the role of a bridge linking Northeast Asia with India, Southwest Asia and Europe, since pre-Christian times," it said, adding the modern history of the nations should be recognized without a colonial lens.
"Korean universities' foreign studies are focused on the languages, but their curricula should be changed to better deal with the regions as a whole," the report said. "Also there is not a single professor majoring in the history of India at some 200 history-related departments in the country. This situation requires government-level measures."
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