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<div class="gmail-view_HD_div"><div class="gmail-view_headline gmail-HD">Moon gets 'F' in education policy </div>
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<div class="gmail-view_date">Posted : 2018-05-18 16:49</div>
<div class="gmail-view_date">Updated : 2018-05-18 18:31</div>
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<div id="gmail-startts"><table class="gmail-tinymce_table" style="margin:0px auto;width:100px;border-collapse:collapse" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><img src="http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/201805/a737fb499ec341aebfcaf28b05c94d23.jpg" alt="" width="740"></td></tr><tr><td class="gmail-view_caption">Moon
Jae-in, then-presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea,
and Kim Sang-gon, the incumbent education minister, speak to parents
about his education policy at Daeyeong Elementary School in March 2017.
Korea Times file</td></tr></tbody></table><span><br>By Kim Hyun-bin</span><br><br><span><span>Most
of the education policies the Moon Jae-in administration has introduced
over the past year have been a failure by all accounts.</span></span><br><br><span><span>Marking
the first-year anniversary of President Moon Jae-in's tenure, Gallup
Korea recently released a survey rating Moon and his key government
branches. Unsurprisingly, the Ministry of Education ranked at the bottom
among all departments with an approval rating of only 30 percent.</span></span><br><br><span><span>Just
the number alone speaks volumes. But to make matters worse, the low
number comes even as Moon's approval rating stands at 74.5 percent,
according to a Realmeter survey released Friday.<br></span><span><br></span><span><strong>Policies confuse public</strong> <br></span><span><br></span><span>People
have been left in confusion during the year as few educational policies
were carefully thought out, and those who implemented them didn't take
the time to gather public opinion.</span></span><br><br><span><span><br></span><span>Soon
after the education ministry announced new policies, such as college
admissions reform and banning afterschool English classes in daycare
centers, the plans faced a strong public backlash. This opposition led
the ministry to postpone the moves. Since then, the ministry has tried
to avoid making decisions on major issues.</span></span><br><br><span><span><br></span><span>In
the case of college admissions reform, the education ministry tossed it
to the Presidential Committee on National Education for further review.</span></span><br><br><span><span><br></span><span>"The
problem is the ministry is avoiding making policy decisions," Rep. Lee
Dong-sup of the Bareun Mirae Party said. "The education ministry
recently announced it will choose its final college admissions policy
through public opinion. This shows a lack of policy enforcement,
conviction and philosophy of the ministry. We need to restructure the
MOE in the education committee to quickly reduce the commotion."<br></span><span><br></span><span><strong>Wider inequality gap</strong><br></span><span><br></span><span>As
a candidate, Moon vowed to reduce inequality in education. But many
experts say his policies might create an even wider gap between the
"haves" and the "have-nots."</span></span><br><br><span><span><br></span><span>Moon's administration banned all afterschool English classes in daycare centers up to the second grade.<br></span><span>The
ministry claims it is ineffective to teach a second language below the
third grade and claimed that it causes excessive stress on the children.</span></span><br><br><span><span><br></span><span>This
goes against decades of domestic and international research, which
shows starting a second language early is better for children so they
can comprehend the language.</span></span><br><br><span><span><br></span><span>However,
the problem is that the gap between rich and poor will inevitably
become wider. Most affluent households will seek more private education
to bypass for the ban. On the other hand, families struggling to stay
afloat will be further left behind.</span></span></div></div></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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