A website (www.isi.go.kr) has been opened to provide comprehensive information on all international schools across the country for parents and students, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Friday.
The website is expected to strengthen transparency in the management of foreign schools and enable parents to compare them before selecting one for their children.
All schools here have to make financial data and other in-depth information public under the Education Law, and parents can access each school’s statistics on a single website (www.schoolinfo.go.kr). However, data on foreign schools has not been available online as their systems are not compatible with the existing ministry one.
Among the information available on the website for foreign schools are financial statements, operation rules, curricula, students’ demographic information, facilities and the number of faculty members.
Korea has a total of 51 schools, established for foreign nationals and Korean students seeking an international education, including three education institutes in Free Economy Zones (FEZ).
The ministry said it has collected opinions from foreign schools, city and provincial education offices along with FEZ offices, before setting up the website.
“The website will be useful for parents, students and those seeking to establish foreign institutes here. They can search and check needed information,” said ministry official Choi In-sung. “We will continue to update information.”
Lax supervision, rules
The ministry’s move to open a new website on foreign schools, which have not been supervised by the education authorities, is expected to help boost management transparency.
However, some foreign schools are pessimistic about the ministry’s policy. “I doubt how well the website can serve parents and students to get information they want,” said Hwa Chan-kwon, a director of Korea International School.
Foreign schools are not obliged to disclose such core information, such as the rate of college advancement by students, graduation rates and school board members. Information on whether teachers have teaching licenses or not is also not available at the website.
Moreover, they are not subject to any audit by education authorities.
The lax supervision of foreign schools and the local governments’ competition to attract them is causing side effects.
Daegu International School is a case in point.
The school has publicized that it will attract investment from a U.S. foundation and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Daegu Metropolitan Government to that extent.
But it did not attract the investment and falsely reported to the authorities as if it had secured the funding.
According to the city government, the school, which opened last August, promised to attract $2 million from investors, while the city paid for all the construction costs.
However, the school operator, Lee Academy, has not attracted the promised amount of money.
The school is suspected of having filled up the gap with tuition from students, with a high school student required to pay about 25 million won in annaul tuition.
But there are no rules by which the authorities can punish the school for their failure to live up to the agreement.
An official from the education ministry said they will look into the case, adding it showed that transparency is needed for the operation of foreign schools.
외국인 학교 정보공개 전용 웹사이트 가동
-주요 정보는 여전히 공개 안 돼……
교육과학기술부는 국내 외국인학교 및 외국교육기관 정보 제공을 목적으로 하는 웹사이트(www.isi.go.kr)를 개설했다고 5일 밝혔다.
이 사이트를 통해 학부모들에게 유용한 정보를 제공하고, 외국인 학교의 투명성과 경쟁력을 제고시키겠다는 것이 교과부의 설명이다.
국내 일반 학교의 경우 학교정보공개 사이트(www.schoolinfo.go.kr)를 통해 학교현황을 열람할 수 있지만, 외국인학교의 경우는 등록이 되어있지 않다. 이에 따라 신설된 사이트는 회계, 교과과정, 학교시설 및 교직원수 등의 기본 정보를 제공하게 된다.
국내에는 48개의 외국인 학교 및 경제자유구역에 있는 3곳의 외국교육기관이 있다.
하지만 일부 외국인 학교의 경우 이 웹사이트의 실효성에 관해 회의적인 반응을 보였다. YBM에서 운영하는 한국외국인학교의 화찬권 실장은 “교과부가 정보공개 사이트를 만든다고 해 (동참)하긴 하지만 학부모들에게는 별 도움은 안될 것”이라고 말했다.
교과부 규정상 외국인학교의 경우 교사의 자격증 소지 현황, 졸업생 진학현황, 학교 이사회 구성원 등의 정보 는 공개하지 않아도 된다.
kswho@koreatimes.co.kr
![[ANALYSIS] China's ban on Micron tests Washington-Seoul alliance](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/1785a57b07ae45a7b7db49fdf4acd720.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Long-awaited extension of Korean Pavilion at Venice Biennale to be pushed forward](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/d8d5090875824ce08a90bb2c5a8f8c05.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
