The call went out: “Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” As sirens wailed and speakers gave orders for all passengers to go up on deck after the stranded ship began to roll from side to side, a group of 6-year-old children calmly unbuckled their seat belts and took hold of their bright orange life vests. One of them had teary eyes, but soon stood up to escape. Fortunately it was all just a drill. “Fol...

Foreign publishers have increased coverage of South Korea in textbooks, with more of them marking maps with the Korean name for the sea between Korea and Japan, Seoul's education ministry said Tuesday. The increase was reported during a meeting of a public-private panel tasked with correcting errors and broadening coverage related to Korea. Vice Education Minister Lee Young presided over the mee...

Lee Ji-sun, a burns victim renowned for her messages of hope, love and self-acceptance, will teach at a local university starting this March, her new employer said Tuesday. The 39-year-old will be formally appointed as a professor at the school’s department of counselling psychology and social welfare, once the administrative proceedings are cleared, said Handong Global University in Pohang, Nor...

More than half of Korean parents believe their financial abilities affect the education environment of their children, a poll revealed Monday. According to a survey conducted by English education institute, Yoons English School, 78.7 percent of the 616 respondents said the social status of a household influences the education of the children living there. When asked to choose one factor that af...

South Korean households’ private education spending is growing much faster than their disposable income, statistics showed Thursday, posing a key challenge to the country’s efforts to revive the economy through domestic consumption. According to a recent survey published by Statistics Korea, the average monthly spending on private education by city-dwelling families of two or more people stood a...

More than 83 percent of 5-year-olds and 36 percent of 2-year-olds in South Korea receive private education, a study revealed Monday. According to the report published by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, a typical 5-year-old Korean kid receives private education 5.2 times a week for a duration of 50 minutes per session. For 2-year-olds, the average is 2.6 times a week and 47.6 min...

The English Instinct Language Institute has emerged as a provider of tailor-made solutions to help middle and high school students master the language. The institute, located in Daechidong, southern Seoul, runs programs specifically designed for Korea’s university admission exam, school records and the English proficiency tests TEPS and TOEFL. It attracts students from not only Seoul and Gyeongg...

Attocube announced on Dec. 19 that it recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mongolian Association of Private Pre-school Center concerning its entrance into Mongolia’s preschool education market. Attocube is a startup company that develops diverse types of educational content using wooden blocks as well as IT-based smart toys. Attocube CEO Sangtaek Han (right) and Executive Direc...

Opposition parties on Tuesday said that the Education Ministry should be abolished if it pushes ahead with the planned introduction of the controversial state-authored history textbook. Calling it the “Park Geun-hye textbook” after the incumbent president who initiated the drive to mandate state-authored history textbooks, they called for a complete abolishment of the plan. “The textbooks are n...

The Ministry of Education on Monday unveiled a draft version of the controversial state-authored history textbooks, despite criticism over their political neutrality and nationwide protests against their initiator President Park Geun-hye. The ministry and National Institute of Korean History revealed three history textbooks for middle school and high school students, called the “Correct History ...

Education Minister Lee Jun-shik on Sunday ruled out the possibility of the government withdrawing its much-disputed plan to introduce state-authored history textbooks at schools nationwide. “As of now, I see no chance of it being scrapped,” said Lee who doubles as deputy prime minister for social affairs. Lee reiterated that the ministry is intent on gathering opinions from experts and the publ...

Some 606,000 high school seniors and graduates in South Korea took the state-administered annual college entrance exam Thursday, as the government implemented various traffic control and anti-noise measures near nationwide testing sites. A total of 605,987 students, down about 25,200 from last year, registered to take the standardized College Scholastic Ability Test that was administered at 1,18...