[Newsmaker] [Hello Hangeul] ‘Hangeul education is basic right for multicultural students’

Publicly provided Korean language schooling for youngsters from immigrant and overseas households is critical as a result of they’re entitled to study the language as a part of their human rights, stated Seoul Metropolis’s schooling chief, stressing the necessity to broaden high quality high-level lessons at present restricted to adults.

“College students of multicultural backgrounds must be given an opportunity to study the Korean language as a fundamental human proper that they’re entitled to,” stated Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of Seoul schooling workplace, in an interview with The Korea Herald late final yr.

“Hopefully, we will broaden Korean language facilities at universities, opening them as much as youthful college students as an example, providing a six-month program for college students who’re but to start college right here,” he stated.

Korean language facilities beneath larger schooling establishments corresponding to Yonsei College and Korea College supply schooling to overseas nationwide adults with a highschool diploma.

“The facilities’ curriculum, that are of top quality, are restricted to adults. It could be higher if elementary, center and highschool college students may enroll within the applications,” Cho stated.

In recent times, Korea has been seeing an increase within the variety of college students with multicultural backgrounds, referring to kids who had been born or being raised in Korea in households of worldwide marriages, overseas households and extra.

Based on the Ministry of Schooling, there have been 168,645 college students from multicultural households in Korea as of August. In Seoul, there have been 19,513 college students from multicultural households as of April, taking on 2.42 p.c of the overall pupil inhabitants within the space.

As of now, the general public schooling system presents Korean language schooling to college students of multicultural backgrounds by way of separate lessons at colleges and after-school lectures on the Seoul Multicultural Schooling Assist Heart in southern Seoul. College students who’ve hassle adapting to native colleges also can enroll in worldwide colleges.

Nonetheless, it could be higher if immigrant youths — that means kids born outdoors of Korea in households of worldwide marriages — may attain a sure stage of language proficiency earlier than they formally enroll within the native college system, Cho stated.

Other than Korean language schooling, Cho believes variety in college students’ ethnic and cultural backgrounds can take Korean schooling to a different stage.

“We have now been seeing extra college students from multicultural households currently, and this may very well be a turning level for the nationwide schooling system,” Cho stated. “You will need to have college students nurture sensitivity for variety. They must study to dwell in a various setting.”

To assist college students from multicultural households discover their place of their native communities, Cho hopes to broaden the vary of extracurricular help applications provided to them.

As an illustration, the schooling workplace has been operating the Dream Mentoring College program for college students from multicultural households. Famed designer Lie Sang-bong and different famend figures from the style business will meet with college students who’ve ambitions to turn into fashions or vogue designers, and assist them placed on a vogue present.

“I consider multicultural backgrounds will likely be belongings of competence sooner or later. Schooling ought to encourage college students from multicultural households excel with their strengths,” Cho stated.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)