Gov’t to expand Korean language education overseas

The Ministry of Education will join hands with nine regional education offices to expand opportunities for Korean language learning around the world with the aim of attracting more foreign students to study at domestic universities.

The government has been seeking to attract more foreign students to cope with a reduction in the number of domestic students caused by a falling birthrate and preemptively secure skilled foreign workers for high-tech industries.

The ministry announced on Tuesday that it selected education offices in Seoul, Incheon, Gwangju, Daegu, Busan and North Gyeongsang, South Jeolla, South and North Chungcheong provinces, to participate in the pilot program to propel international exchanges.

The nine education offices, as well as Korean Education Centers located around the world, will promote Korean language education to get more people to study in Korea.

Currently, there are 43 Korean Education Centers in 19 countries.

“We expect the program to contribute to boosting the competitiveness of universities outside Seoul and alleviating the growing regional disparity,” said Song Geun-hyun, who is in charge of global education planning at the ministry.

The concentration of prestigious universities and the allure of urban life have created a strong preference for institutions located in the capital. This has resulted in a decline in new enrollments at universities outside Seoul and the phenomenon has been exacerbated by a declining birthrate.

The new program is a follow-up to the “Study Korea 300K Project,” announced by the ministry in August last year, through which the government aims to increase the number of foreign students studying at domestic universities to 300,000 by 2027 from the current 170,000.

Each education office will dispatch to those centers Korean language education specialists as well as public officials supporting administrative work necessary to attract foreign students.

For example, the Incheon education office plans to operate a camp, jointly with three centers located in Thailand, Ho Chi Minh and Tashkent, to offer opportunities to students there to experience Korean culture.

The ministry will provide a special grant of 10.4 billion won ($7.9 million) to each education office. And each office will invest 22 billion won from their own budget.

Based on the results of the pilot project, the ministry will expand the scale of the program and the number of participants in the future.

Through the program, the ministry aims to encourage more elementary and middle schools around the world to adopt Korean language as a regular subject.

Currently, Korean is taught as a regular subject in 20 countries.