The Korea Herald

Ministry to punish teachers for textbook protest

Nov 15, 2015

The Education Ministry has requested disciplinary actions against teachers who participated in a nationwide condemnation of the recently revived state-authored history textbooks, officials said Sunday. According to the ministry, officials have called for punishment of 21,379 teachers from 3,904 schools across the country who publicly denounced the government’s plan to use state-issued history te...
Test-takers embrace challenges of ‘Suneung’

Nov 12, 2015

Jo Myeong-ja, 79, has taken a long detour en route to higher education. As the oldest of some 630,000 students who took the annual college entrance exam Thursday morning, Jo stood outside the gates of Hongik University Girls’ High School, recounting her journey as youngsters chanted cheers and parents hugged their children in the background. “I want to go to college. As long as there’s still ti...
Education ministry, foreign embassies ink deal on biz cooperation

Nov 12, 2015

The Unification Ministry and eight foreign embassies in Seoul agreed Thursday to cooperate on developing a program that will help middle school students explore their career options, government officials said. The education ministry, the institute for vocational training and foreign embassies, including the British Embassy, inked a deal to cooperate on ways to facilitate the "free semester" prog...
630,000 students take college entrance exam

Nov 12, 2015

More than 630,000 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 631,187 students, down about 10,000 from last year, registered to take the standardized College Scholastic Ability Test that was administrated a...
Korea enters full ‘Suneung’ mode

Nov 11, 2015

As South Korean students across the country honed their academic skills in the final preparation for this year’s “Suneung” college entrance exam Wednesday, the authorities also prepared to support the youngsters for what many still consider to be a “life-deciding” test. The exam has been held in Korea on the second Thursday of November annually since 1993. Although the college admission also inc...
SNU’s LGBT group supports gay student chief candidate

Nov 11, 2015

A sexual minority group at Seoul National University on Friday expressed support for a female candidate running for SNU student council president who recently revealed that she is homosexual. Queer In SNU posted online and offline messages to support Kim Bo-mi, a 23-year-old student in the school’s department of child development and family studies, on publicly declaring that she is a lesbian. K...
Iceland president receives honorary doctorate from Kookmin University

Nov 10, 2015

Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson received an honorary doctorate from Kookmin University on Monday during his visit to South Korea this week. “We highly praise President Grimsson’s accomplishments as a politician and in preserving the global environment and contributing to international peace, and therefore decided to give him the honorary doctorate degree on the occasion of his first vis...
History spat roils education scene

Nov 9, 2015

Seoul City plans to provide students in middle and high schools with books that chronicle the names of those who sympathized with imperial Japan during its colonial rule of Korea, stoking opposition from the conservatives who claim it is a move to thwart the government’s reinstatement of state-authored history textbooks. Kim Moon-soo, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, said Monday that...
5 major disputes surrounding state textbooks

Nov 9, 2015

Last Friday, Choi Mong-lyong -- the government’s choice as one of the main authors for a new set of state-issued history textbooks -- resigned after allegations surfaced that he had sexual harassed a female reporter. While denying any wrongdoing, the professor emeritus of Seoul National University said he did not want to bog down the publication process. Professor Choi Mong-lyong is surrounded ...
Education minister vows to protect textbook authors

Nov 9, 2015

Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea vowed that the government will protect the panel of authors for state history textbooks, who face criticism on the Internet. Last week, the government announced that it will revise the current textbook publication system so that middle and high school students will learn Korean history through national textbooks starting in the 2017 school year. The government a...
Agency unveils first authors for state textbooks

Nov 4, 2015

The government on Wednesday revealed two of the authors for the planned state-issued history textbooks, along with a timeline for the books’ completion, but said it “might make public” the rest of the authors “if the situation allows.” The state-run National Institute of Korean History announced the guidelines of the history textbooks for middle and high school, as a follow-up to the final decis...
Korea confirms state textbook plan

Nov 3, 2015

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn announced Tuesday that South Korea would officially reinstate government-issued history textbooks for secondary education from 2017, saying that the current system had failed after four years of implementation. “It is realistically impossible to author a correct history textbook under the current system. It is the government’s conclusion that the privately-authored s...
U.S. historian calls state textbook unworkable

Nov 3, 2015

A prominent U.S. expert on Korean history bashed the Seoul government’s plan to reinstate government-issued history textbooks, raising concerns that President Park Geun-hye is attempting to unify viewpoints on history. Calling the plan “unworkable, retrograde and stupid,” Bruce Cumings, a University of Chicago professor specializing in modern Korean and international history, said it was a remin...
Korea confirms state textbook plan, says private publication failed

Nov 3, 2015

Prime Minster Hwang Kyo-ahn announced Tuesday that South Korea would officially reinstate government-issued history textbooks for secondary education, saying that the current private publication system had failed after four years into implementation. Prime Minster Hwang Kyo-ahn (Yonhap) “It is realistically impossible to author a correct history textbook under the current system. It is the gove...
Ministry pushes ahead with state textbook

Nov 2, 2015

The government said Monday it would expedite the schedule to confirm reinstatement of government-issued history textbooks from Thursday to Tuesday, prompting a flurry of protests with the main opposition party vowing a boycott of parliamentary sessions. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea will hold a briefing at Seoul Government Complex at 11 a.m. Tuesday, according...