Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Tuesday it planned to encourage all primary and secondary schools to teach written Chinese staring this September.

The Seoul education office is planning to hire retired teachers and parents for the classes run as part of after-school programs.

During the class, students will learn words that are frequently used in current school textbooks, it said.

The Seoul education office will set up an advisory panel this week to develop the curriculum and teaching materials. All public schools in the city will be advised to offer the class voluntarily, starting from next semester.

The Seoul education office said it believed learning Chinese characters would enhance students’ Korean language proficiency.

“School textbooks use many Korean words based on Chinese characters, but many students memorize the words not knowing the meaning,” an official from the education office said.

“If students have better understanding of Chinese letters, it will help them follow up school classes.”

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)