AI-based education could restore trust: National Assembly Speaker

South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo. [Photo by Kim Ho-young]

South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo emphasized in a recent interview that the digital transformation of public education could be a turning point in restoring trust in public education.

“Public education can catch up with private education if we can prove that artificial intelligence (AI)-based debate-oriented education is better than college entrance exam-oriented pre-learning.”

Kim believes that introducing AI-based education could help rebuild public education, which has collapsed due to a decline in educational authority and reliance on private education.

“Public education should now meet the demands of the public, who want to build better lives through education,” Kim emphasized during a recent interview with Maeil Business Newspaper at his office. He also pointed out that the success of digital transformation depends on building a sense of pride and solidarity among teachers through focused training.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

―Public education is in crisis. What do you think are the causes and solutions?

▷People want their children to have a better life in the future through education, and this requires both a certain level of “universal” education for all citizens and “meritocratic” education that nurtures each individual‘s best abilities. However, public education is currently unable to fulfill the public’s desire for quality education and private education is filling the gap as quality education is misunderstood as college entrance exam preparation.

The total amount of annual private education expenses reached 26 trillion won ($19.55 billion) in 2022, setting a record. We must break through this crisis in public education by actively utilizing the changes in the current AI era that are becoming a part of our daily lives. AI chatbots can help students with personalized learning, such as customized career guidance. Teachers can guide students to utilize AI technology effectively and explore career paths together, fostering students’ creativity, diversity, and social skills. This educational model, which cultivates essential skills for the AI era, is something that private education cannot provide.

-Do you think AI can make quality education possible?

▷Yes. Currently, most private education focuses on prior learning, which means students only learn how to memorize and solve problems. It has its limitations and students lose interest quickly. We need an education system where students to find answers through discussion and conversation.

With the introduction of AI, it is possible for students to find information on their own, discuss it thoroughly, and enlighten themselves. Debate education enhances the ability to think and creativity, as well as cultivating social skills by respecting other people’s ideas. Students can also use the time saved from studying for college entrance exams to improve their physical health. This is the education method in developed countries. By presenting the most advanced model of AI education, we can lead parents to respect public education.

―What do you think is the most important thing to successfully apply AI technology in public education?

▷There is a saying that education is only as good as the teacher. This means empowering teachers to educate students with new technologies is key. Teachers should be able to act as facilitators who help students to creatively apply their knowledge and information as well as consultants who can help with their career planning. They should also be able to use AI analytics to personalize the curriculum for each student.

―How can we strengthen teachers’ capabilities?

▷We need training programs that will equip teachers with the required skills. From 2025 to 2028, AI digital textbooks will be gradually introduced to public education, making next year a crucial time for enhancing AI capabilities in public education. We must put supportive policies for teacher capacity building in 2023, and full-scale AI capacity building training for teachers should begin next year. AS a start, the Ministry of Education unveiled a plan in February to intensively train 1,500 teachers in stages from 2024 to 2026 to apply AI digital textbooks.

To dramatically improve the quality of public education using AI technology, we need efforts to be more focused, such as the training of at least one AI-leading teacher in each elementary, middle, and high school, which would increase the target number of teachers to around 13,000. Most importantly, teacher training programs should instill a sense of pride and solidarity among teachers as agents of public education innovation.

―What would be the incentives for trained teachers?

▷Teachers participating in training programs could be promoted quicker and have the opportunity of moving to educational administration positions. It will also benefit schools if young teachers who are aware of the trends in education and open to reform could become vice principals and principals. It is also important to take measures to reduce teachers’ workloads to ensure that AI-enabled learning itself does not become another burden on teachers.

―It seems like a lot of money is needed for teacher training.

▷One way to alleviate costs is to utilize the “local education finance grant” that the education ministry provides to local education offices. While the grant for local education offices is increasing, there is a considerable amount that has yet to be allocated. The funds saved by local education offices have increased significantly from 2.1 trillion won in 2017 to 23.3 trillion won in 2022. It is estimated that approximately 7 trillion won will be needed from 2024 to 2029 to strengthen AI capabilities.

Kim recently introduced a bill to amend the Local Education Finance Grant Act to establish legal grounds for utilizing the grant.

The proposed amendment involves temporarily increasing the ratio of the special education grant within the grant from 3 percent to 4 percent, resulting in an approximate increase of 740 billion won from the current 2.23 trillion won in the special education grant. This temporary increase is intended to apply for six years, after which the system will revert to its intial settings without the need for additional legal changes.