Scholars, education experts and teachers of math and science will team up to work on a blueprint for a new curriculum for elementary, middle and high schools, officials from a state-run body said Monday.

The Korea Foundation for Advancement of Science and Creativity, which will host the discussions, said their aim was to design a curriculum that makes math and science more approachable as subjects. The announcement was made at a debate for math and science education hosted by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

It was in response to the plan recently announced by the Education Ministry to integrate high school humanities and natural science programs by 2017. As a result of the overhaul, all students will be required to take a certain number of advanced math and science classes.

Officials at the KFA said that despite Korean students’ excellent performance in science and math, their interest in the fields was relatively low.

The waning popularity of the subjects has led to an increasing number of students that completely give up on the subjects while preparing for state-commissioned college entrance exams and focus instead on other subjects like Korean and English.  

Last year, 34.1 percent of the students got less than 30 percent in math, far more than 4.6 percent and 7.1 percent for Korean and English, respectively.

According to the KFA, 52 experts in science ― consisting of teachers, education experts and scholars ― will partake in the discussion to find out which elements should be focused on in the new school programs. The math team will consist of 34 people.

The teams will start working on their directives this weekend.

In addition to the discussions, the KFA also plans to design specific long-term educational standards required for students in math and science.

Participants in the debate ― which included Science Minister Choi Yang-hee, heads of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the Korean Association for Science Education ― also agreed that the importance of science technology and education is growing as society becomes more complicated and diverse.

“I expect both the science and education circles to actively cooperate in order to find out how to boost students’ interest in math and science, while enhancing the education of the subjects,” said Choi.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)