e-Learning for Lifelong Learning 05 in South Korea February 2010 Institute of Distance Education Korea National Open University ■Min-Seung Jung is an associate professor in the Department of Education at Korea National Open University. Dr. Jung holds her doctoral degree in Education from Seoul National University(Ph. D and M. Ed.), and teaches several subjects such as ‘Lifelong Learning’, ‘Feminist Pedagogy’, and ‘Development and Education’, and ‘Social Movement and Lifelong Learning’. She has joined in the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Society for Lifelong Education, the Korean Society for the study of Anthropology of Education, National Institute for Lifelong Educationas an executive member. She has published articles centered on the critical approaches of adult learning and cyber-culture, and books including Internet as a space of learning, and Researching Adult Education. She is presently researching the characteristics of adult students with Dr. Kasworm of North Carolina State University, and Korean immigrants’ intercultural learning process in University of North Carolina Asia Center as a visiting scholar. ■Kyoung-Ae Choi has been working as an associate professor and the head of Department of Educational Technology in Cyber Graduate School, Joongbu University. Dr. Choi, graduated Seoul National University(Ph. D and M. Ed.), had an experienceto work for Korea National Open University (KNOU) as a researcher. Now she teaches several subjects such as ‘Understanding Distance Education’, Systems Approach to Instructional Design’, ‘Quality Management of Distance Education’. With regard to research, her main concern is to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in traditional or technol- ogy-based environment. Recently, She has studied the learning strategies and attitudes of excellent students in a traditional/cyber university, and the policies of universities to enhance the teaching quality. Now She is writing a book about Quality Management of Distance Education. ■Eun-Soon Baik is a Director General of NILE (National Institute of Lifelong Education) which is a national government funded institution established to promote the lifelong education in Korea. She has worked in the area of lifelong education for a long time as a scholar and policy maker. She is currently vice president of the Korean Society for Lifelong Education, board member of the association of the lifelong education specialist, board member of the Adult and Continuing Education of Korea, committee member of the Adult Literacy Education, committee member of the Military Education and Training, the association of female lifelong education, and the Committee of Educational Statistics. She has written many articles and research papers related with the lifelong education policy such as “the Characteristics of adult learners in the Academic Credit Bank System”, “Cross-Cultural Comparison on Open Learning System in APEC Member Economies” and etc. She is also teaching doctoral students. 358 e-ASEM White Paper : e-Learning for Lifelong Learning I Introduction to Education System 2.1 in South Korea The founding principle of education in South Korea is humanitarianism named Hongik, which leads the provision of education for all the people in the country regardless of age, class and gender. According to the principle, free education should be available for children under the age of 15. The Constitutional Law allows everyone to learn throughout their lifetime depending on his/her capacity and aptitude. Educational opportunity is defined by laws such as the Early Childhood Education Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, and the Lifelong Education Act. This chapter presents an overview of education system in South Korea as the basis of understanding of e-Learning in the context of lifelong education. I-1 Formal Education System South Korea’s current education system has established since the liberation from Japanese colonial rule. For the purpose of constructing new democratic country, South Korea adopted American education system characterized as “6-3-3-4 school year sys- tem” just after the establishment of the Education Law in 1949. Schooling in South Korea expanded so rapidly during the 20-year period from 1960 to 1980 that it was referred to as “School Inflation.” South Korean government propelled literacy project, whose purpose was achieving all the people literate. Through compulsory and free schooling policy, the main beneficiaries are school-age children who could have failed to participate equally in South Korea’s social development. Nowadays, the 9 years of compulsory education from elementary to middle school is provided tuition-free, including provision of supplement education for middle school. 05. e-Learning for Lifelong Learning in South Korea 359 Fig. I-1 Education System in South Korea High school programs are provided at a small cost($200 per semester) and divided into general high schools, commercial high schools, science high schools, and spe- cial-purpose high schools depending on educational contents and purposes. These schools are described as follows: － General high schools provide students with a liberal education. In the first year, 360 e-ASEM White Paper : e-Learning for Lifelong Learning students learn basic knowledge that all the people must acquire as citizens, and they choose subjects depending on their aptitude, capacity, and career plans in the second and third year. － Commercial high schools, typical vocational institutes in Korea, provide both pro- fessional education and secondary general education. First-year students learn the knowledge that every citizen must acquire, and second and third-year students study professional subjects. Professional subjects include agriculture, industry, commerce, fisheries and marine transportation, household affairs and business. Since 2000, subject fields are becoming specialized into information technology, robotics, animation, film, cooking, beauty culture, and tourism reflecting the spe- cific division in the industry and vocational world. － Science high schools are designed for the talented students in fulfilling their poten- tial without meaningless competitions. Students who complete 2 year program in their schools may enter the bachelor’s course (same as a university program) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as well as those uni- versities where they have been admitted. － Special-purpose high schools are established to provide students with specialized education in foreign languages, music, the arts, dance, and sports. Universities are the most representative institutes at the level of higher education. Because of the enthusiasm of Bachelor’s degrees, there are over 170 universities (408 including colleges, in 2007) whose percentage of the population is very high. Most of the people get a degree of well-regarded university which is a kind of symbol of high status. Therefore, whereas most of the high school graduates attend uni- versities, only a few people go to the institutions for vocational higher education in spite of the promotion of government. These institutions are divided into two parts: industrial universities that train industrial human resources and colleges that train professional workers generally offer 2 to 3-year courses such as vocational col- leges, technical colleges, technical schools (3 years), advanced technical schools (3 years), civil education centers (2-3 years), and advanced civil education centers (2-3 years). The avoidance of vocational higher education reflects the privilege of liberal 05. e-Learning for Lifelong Learning in South Korea 361 arts in Korea, however, this bias is noticeably decreased after the crisis is spreading with the world-wide change of knowledge-based society. Although rapid growth of schooling, according to South Korea’s 2005 census, more than 2 million people 20 years old or older in the adult population did not have elementary school diplomas; 5.98 million people did not have middle school diplomas. Even after narrowing the population range to people 20 - 50 years old and who are expected to be fully engaged in social activities, there are still about 100,000 people without elementary school diplomas and 690,000 people without mid- dle school diplomas. This situation forces government to secure the educational and learning rights for undereducated people and non-formal learning activities centering on the complementation of academic ability, basic adult and literacy education, and enhancement of vocational competencies for those who were deprived of a regular school education with post-secondary lifelong learning in general. I-2 Non-formal Education The non-formal education at the national level is represented by Air and Correspondence High Schools and alternative schools. Air and Correspondence High Schools provide advanced learning opportunities for those who were unable to enter high school due to financial and other personal reasons. Chapter 5 will discuss Air and Correspondence High Schools further. Alternative schools are the result of the school reform movement in South Korea that was naturally born in the course of the social and structural transformation to knowledge based society. Nevertheless, only about 5,000 students are enrolled in alternative schools, which account for only 0.2% of the total student population. As of higher education in the context of lifelong learning, South Korea has well-estab- lished institutions and systems for the