Four out of five foreign teenagers who come to Korea to live with their foreign mothers or fathers when they remarry Korean spouses are not attending school, according to research by a think tank on Friday.

There are a total of 875 foreign teenagers living in Seoul, but their school attendance rate is only 21.7 percent, the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family said in a report.

The number of foreigners under the age of 21 registered with the immigration office is 5,726, and 34 percent of them are currently living in the capital, city officials said.

The majority of them, 91.3 percent, are from China, followed by Mongolia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

City officials point out that the language barrier is the main reason why they are out of the school system.

“It’s hard for foreign teenagers to follow Korean curriculum due to language difficulty. Some schools don’t allow their admission because they are afraid they might lower the overall academic level of the school,” said an official.

Jang Myung-seon of SFWF, who led the research team, stressed that the government should help them receive language education for their studies and future careers, and that the education should be suitable to their age.

The report also said that the city government, the educational office and immigration office should work together to grasp the exact number of foreign teenagers in the city first and then provide proper assistance when they first arrive in Korea. The actual number is expected to be higher than that of those registered.

A center for education for multicultural families, established by the city and Hyundai Motor, provides foreign teenagers with classes in basic Korean, computer skills and study courses for the qualification exam to acquire a high school diploma.

By Lee Woo-young

(wylee@heraldcorp.com)