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Plans to Establish an Integrated School for Gifted Children

Plans to Establish an Integrated School for Gifted Children

Posted April. 30, 2007 03:43,   

한국어

The government is planning to establish an integrated school for the gifted and the talented that will teach children who have special gifts in humanities, social studies, science, cultural studies, and the arts.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development announced on Sunday that it is designing a new type of integrated school for gifted children. The Ministry added it decided to establish such a school because the Korea Science Academy and science high schools are concentrating on math and science and, as a result, Korea lacks gifted children who have balanced knowledge.

An integrated school for the gifted and the talented will educate gifted children separately according to their special gifts in various fields, including languages, philosophy, mathematics, cultural studies and the arts. In the meantime, it will teach students who have talent for math humanities while teaching children who have gifts in science philosophy to enhance interdisciplinary education.

The ministry officials said, “Advanced countries are educating gifted children from all fields in an integrated school to teach them to be well-cultured. On the other hand, in Korea, there aren’t even exchanges between science high schools and foreign language high schools. We need an integrated school for gifted children where they can fully develop their talent and gifts while studying a variety of fields.

The ministry commissioned the Korean Education Development Institute (KEDI) create a “Study to Analyze Performance of Korean Science Academy and Ways to Develop a School for Children Gifted in Science” to compare the curriculum of the Korea Science Academy with 18 science high schools.

The ministry is expected to discuss ways to establish an integrated school for gifted children in late May when they receive a report from the KEDI and convene a central commission for promoting education for gifted children.

The ministry’s decision to establish such an integrated school will not open the school immediately. The school is expected to open in 2009 at the earliest because it takes time to develop a curriculum.

The ministry is considering two plans; to establish a new integrated school for gifted children and to integrate the existing Korea Science Academy and 18 science high schools into a new type of school.

Officials from the KEDI said, “About 140~150 students per grade could be admitted to the integrated school for the gifted, which is the almost same number as those in science high schools. Students may pay a quarter of their tuition and the government may provide the rest.”

The KEDI is analyzing the merits and demerits of the admission process of the Korea Science Academy and science high schools across the country, while studying the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) and Israel’s boarding school for gifted children so that Korea can develop a school for gifted children that meets the needs of the country.

Meanwhile, the Offices of Education in Seoul, Incheon and Daejeon have decided to delay their decision to turn science high schools in their cities to science academies for gifted children until the ministry outlines its plan to build an integrated school for gifted children.



ceric@donga.com