Foreign School Quota Set at 30% for Koreans

Education News - International School News

Monday, 05 January 2009 00:00 Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 January 2009 17:36 Written by TiES

Foreign School Quota Set at 30% for Koreans

A number of restrictions on foreign schools will be eased or removed from January (2009) at the earliest, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Monday. "We expect easier rules in establishing quality foreign schools and attracting more foreign investors to Korea. The schools will be able to get financial support from the government,’’ said Sung Sam-je, director of the planning division of the ministry.

"Education authorities will be empowered to monitor and supervise the international schools more thoroughly,’’ Sung said Monday. According to the changed rules, the minimum amount of years required for Korean nationals to stay overseas for enrollment in those schools will be shortened to three years from the current five.

However, the revised regulation will require those having dual citizenship and foreign green cards to prove more than three-years of residence abroad. This is aimed at denying the admission of students with purchased residence cards without actual residence overseas.

In addition, the maximum quota of Korean nationals will be set at 30 percent of the total number of students.

Sung said the ministry will supervise the schools according to their proposed admission guidelines submitted to the education authorities, although he said admission in exchange for a money donation, banned in Korean schools, may be possible according to each school’s policy.

Korean universities will be able to acknowledge diplomas from the schools. So far, graduates of non-Korean schools had to take state-run exams in order to gain certificates of high school graduation, if they wanted to apply for Korean universities.

Foreign schools seeking the acknowledgement, however, need to set up more than 102 hours of Korean language and Korean history classes, respectively.

Nonprofit foreign corporations and foreign religious corporations and Korean educational foundations will be able to set up international schools. Currently, only individual foreigners can establish foreign schools.

There are 46 foreign schools across the country with about 10,000 enrolled students. Among them, Seoul has 20 and the city plans to build three more by 2012.