INCHEON, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) – In a modest classroom in Incheon’s Bupyeong District, a teacher peered at a monitor, offering pronunciation tips to a group of high school seniors located nearly 200 kilometers away on Baengnyeong Island.
The students, otherwise unable to access a Japanese language class due to teacher shortages, followed intently from their school—thanks to South Korea’s growing “online high school” network.
First launched in 2023, the online public school system was designed to support the phased implementation of the high school credit system, which officially began for first-year students in 2025. The reform allows students to choose from a wider array of subjects, making remote learning a key tool in bridging resource gaps between urban and rural schools.
Currently, 17 regional education offices operate one online high school each, with the final branch in Sejong scheduled to open in September. These schools offer real-time, interactive courses to students in small or remote schools where certain subjects—like Japanese, fashion design, or programming—would otherwise be unavailable due to limited staffing or demand.
The format closely mirrors that of traditional schools. Certified public school teachers, as well as adjunct instructors, conduct live classes from studio-equipped classrooms. Student performance is graded by the online teacher and shared with the student’s home school.
Incheon Online School, which opened in September 2023, now serves around 2,000 students across 32 schools, offering 116 courses during the first semester of 2025. The facility includes eight digital lecture studios staffed by 20 full-time teachers and eight part-time instructors.
For students like An Hee-soo, a senior at Baengnyeong High School, the program has opened doors: “Living on an island, we had limited class options. Now I can study Japanese and pursue my interest in tourism.” However, his classmate Kim Kyo-bin noted the challenges: “Even with a supervising teacher, it’s sometimes hard to concentrate in an online setting. I hope there are ways to improve focus.”
Vice Principal Cho Jeong-im said demand is outpacing capacity. “We plan to build more classrooms next year. This could be the foundation for a future-oriented education model,” she said.
With the high school credit system now fully in effect for first-year students, officials expect calls for more elective offerings to increase. A Ministry of Education official stated, “We’re working to expand subject availability through online schools so that every student, regardless of geography, can access the courses they want.”
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
