This file photo provided by the culture ministry shows the World Korean Educator Conference held in Seoul on Aug. 6, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The government will seek to revitalize Korean language education in foreign elementary and middle schools, the Ministry of Education said Monday, amid growing overseas interest in Korean after author Han Kang’s recent Nobel Prize in literature award.
To that end, it will establish a new specialized organization to devise country- and region-specific strategies for popularizing the Korean language among elementary and middle school students abroad, the ministry said.
The organization, tentatively named “Overseas Korean Language Education Support Center,” will also develop and distribute regionally customized textbooks and digital Korean language learning content, it said.
Such measures were approved during a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers in Seoul on Monday, the ministry added.
The government has provided various support to promote the opening of Korean language classes in foreign elementary and middle schools, starting with the United States in 1999. As a result, 2,154 schools in 47 foreign countries are now operating Korean language classes. But there have been concerns that the quality of education may decline due to the lack of Korean educators and systematic data analysis.
The ministry said the new support center will offer customized consulting that takes into account the growth cycle of Korean language education, strengthens the training of foreign Korean language teachers, continuously discovers new countries in need of Korean language education and increases the overseas dispatch of native Korean-speaking teachers.
(Yonhap)
