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| Participants of the World Education Forum 2015 enter the Songdo Convensia in Incheon, Tuesday, before the forum kicked off its four-day run. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Chung Hyun-chae
Baek Sun-geun, president of the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), says countries should focus on the quality of education and creativity.
"As the post-2015 education agenda shifts from quantitative development to qualitative improvement, creativity and skills are crucial factors for this transition, and policy innovation that helps to achieve these key objectives is most important," Baek said on Monday.
He made the remarks in a discussion session one day before the World Education Forum 2015 began its four-day run in Songdo, Incheon.
Under the theme "Quality Education for All," the KEDI provided at the Songdo Convensia experts' presentations and in-depth discussions on how to find innovative education and relevant policy measures that promote learners' skills and creativity.
The KEDI is a leading state-funded institution in education policy research and planning.
Four education experts made presentations. They included Andreas Schleicher, director for the Directorate of Education and Skills of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Kim Seung-hwan, president of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity (KOFAC).
Halsey Rogers, lead economist with the education team in the Human Development Network at the World Bank, and Yoon Jong-hyeok, director-general of the KEDI, also took part in the discussion.
"The future is difficult to predict, but one trend is clear; in countries like Korea, the steepest decline in the demand for skills is now in routine cognitive skills," Schleicher said. "The required skills now are the great collaboration, synthesizing and explaining skills."
Meanwhile, Rogers advised Korea to change its education.
"Korea needs to make formal school learning more engaging and creative and to reform university admissions," he said. "Also, the country should ensure that everyone, including women and youth, has full opportunity to use their skills."
Following the presentation, Hwang Sun-hye, president of Sookmyung Women's University, led an in-depth discussion session.
The panelists included Woo Tong-ki, superintendent of the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education; Suzanne Grant Lewis, director for UNESCO International for Educational Panning (IIEP); and Martina A. Roth, senior director of Global Education Strategy, Research and Policy at INTEL Corp.
During the discussion, Woo emphasized the importance of humanity education and suggested the concept of parents' education.
"I would also like to stress that there are two tracks in education: school education and parents' education," he said. "The situation can be totally different when communities and parents are involved in education."
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