Autonomous private, foreign language, and international high schools to be maintained

Lee Ju-ho, deputy prime minister and education minister, holds a briefing on partial amendments to the enforcement decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at the annex of the Government Complex in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Saturday. By Seong Dong-hoon Reporter

The maintenance of autonomous private high schools, foreign language high schools, and international high schools, which were scheduled to be converted to general high schools from 2025, has been confirmed. The 10 autonomous schools recruiting students nationwide should select at least 20 percent of their new students from their respective regions where they are located.

The Ministry of Education said in a briefing at the government complex in Seoul on January 16 that a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which maintains the basis for the establishment of autonomous private high schools, foreign language high schools, and international high schools, was deliberated and passed at a cabinet meeting earlier in the day. The revised decree will come into effect on the first of next month.

Earlier, the Moon Jae-in administration revised the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to convert these schools to general schools in time for the 2025 school year, when the high school credit system will be fully introduced, saying that the current high school system, which is categorized as autonomous private, foreign language, and international schools, devastates general high schools and induces private education. However, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration nullified the plan. As those private high schools are to be maintained, side effects, such as excessive private tutoring to enter higher ranking schools, are expected to continue for the time being.

To curb private education, the government decided to continue the late student selection system, which allows students to take an entrance examination of autonomous private high schools at the same time as regular ones, and the self-directed learning process, which prohibits the evaluation of subject knowledge in the second-stage interviews, but failed to come up with additional measures to curb private education.

There are also concerns that the change in the college entrance examination system from the 2028 academic year could increase the preference for autonomous private and foreign language high schools, leading to side effects such as private education. Song Kyung-won, a member of the Justice Party said, "Combined with the difficult college entrance exam, the new college entrance system, and the medical school craze, the maintenance of autonomous private high schools and foreign language high schools can affect private education expenses," adding, "It is questionable whether it will meet the direction of easing competition, which is a key challenge of the country’s education."

According to the revised enforcement ordinance, 10 autonomous private high schools recruiting students nationwide should select at least 20 percent of their students from the region where they are located. For example, the Korean Minjok Leadership Academy should recruit at least 20 percent of its students graduating from middle schools in Gangwon Province. "It is mandatory for nationwide autonomous high schools to select local talents in order to contribute to improving local settlement conditions," said Kim Yeon-seok, head of the Education Policy Office at the Ministry of Education. "If the schools fail to meet the mandatory percentage of recruiting local talents, we are considering sanctions through operational performance evaluations."

The six former autonomous private high schools, including Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, Hana Academy Seoul, Hyundai Chungun High School, Pohang Jecheol High School, and Gwangyang Jecheol High School, which were not obligated to select their students through the social integration recruitment process, are now obligated to select 20 percent of the new students through the process. However, if there are fewer students for the capacity of the social integration recruitment process, 50 percent of the rest can be selected through the general recruitment process. Metropolitan and provincial superintendents of education shall have the authority to evaluate the operational performance of autonomous private high schools, foreign language high schools, and international high schools and decide whether to maintain their status every five years as before.

As the basis for the establishment and operation of autonomous public high schools, which were scheduled to be abolished along with autonomous private high schools, is maintained, the government will select and operate the second pilot version of autonomous public high schools in March so that creative education models can be applied according to local conditions and circumstances.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.