In emphasizing the necessity for state-led history education, Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea told local university chiefs Tuesday that “countries suffering from social conflict such as Turkey and Greece use state-authored textbooks.”The Park Geun-hye administration, which has recently repossessed the publishing rights for secondary education history textbooks from local publishers, has also emphasized the importance of “learning a unified version of history to dissolve disputes in the society.

The Education Ministry recently announced that it will take back publishing rights of history textbooks for secondary education in a bid to restore “balanced history education.”But Yang Jung-hyun, a history professor with experience authoring a state-published textbook, said granting the government exclusive rights to write textbooks is among the worst idea imaginable. Last week, he and 23 colleagues at Pusan National University joined a nationwide move by professors to refuse to participate in

As criticism against the plan to revive state-authored history textbooks mounted over concerns that they will be biased in favor of conservatives, the government said it will rule out “far-right” scholars as authors, specifically those who participated in writing the controversial textbook by Kyohak Publishing Co.The Kyohak textbook has been accused of favorably depicting pro-Japanese figures and controversial politicians like former President Park Chung-hee, the father of incumbent leader Park

The government’s path to reclaiming issuing rights for history textbooks from private publishers entails a myriad of tasks, such as procuring the authors and budget and getting the general education circles to fall in line. The Education Ministry on Monday announced that it would reinstate government-published history textbooks for secondary education starting in 2017. But history professors from Kyung Hee University on Wednesday announced that they would not participate as authors in the state-

Prime Minister says freedom of ideas can be restrained ‘in special occasions’

The nationwide dispute over the Education Ministry’s recent decision to reinstate state history textbooks for secondary education hinges on the government and the ruling party’s claim that current textbooks are biased in favor of the leftists. But scholars and the opposition lawmakers have pointed out that most of the points used as evidence of “left-leaning bias” are false, heralding further head-butting over the issue.  Members of a conservative civic group protest against NPAD chairman Rep. M

With Korean society emphasizing the importance of the “creative economy,” novel and imaginative ideas are becoming more valuable than ever. Professor Min Byoung-chul, professor of international studies at Konkuk University, looks to help students’ capacity to come up with such ideas through his business English class. The class, which is conducted entirely in English, centers on teaching the techniques needed while working at global companies, according to Min. This includes presentation skills,

A recent study by a local scholar suggested South Korean college students are not very proficient in their mother tongue, with the average student having only basic writing skills.Song Hyun-jung, an assistant professor of Korean language education at Jeju National University, assessed the writing skills and grammar knowledge of 632 male and female students. The participants were asked to answer 20 questions designed to see if they had the Korean language skills required for higher education.On a

Last Friday, some 400 students of state-run universities across South Korea held a joint protest supporting the direct voting system of college presidents by professors.While the students themselves were not direct beneficiaries of the system, they said that the Education Ministry’s plan to implement indirect voting infringes on the autonomy of higher education institutes.“The ministry is tearing down the very principles of democracy, which is that members of an organization have the right to pi