2025, the year when major issues that will shake up the entire education system in Korea will begin in earnest.

Education is no exception to the immense current of change. To properly overcome the crisis amidst this turbulent period, we must properly assess the current state of education and identify a direction. "Education Trends in Korea 2025" offers in-depth analysis and a systemic approach to pressing issues, including AI digital textbooks, integrated pre-school and kindergarten classes, Neulbom School, the high school credit system, special education development zones, expanding medical school enrollment, local education finance grants, and tasks for the 22nd National Assembly. This approach provides a multi-layered perspective on education.
The "Korea Education Trends Series" was created with the participation of a group of education experts, including field teachers.

Reading "Education Trends in Korea 2025" is an act of reflecting on our education and exploring the future.
The "Education Trends Series" has been providing insight into current issues in our education since 2021, and each year, it offers deeper analysis and practical solutions.
For Korean education, which has lost its way and is struggling through the fog, "Republic of Korea Education Trends 2025" will serve as a reliable guide.
We invite our readers into a world of debate and discourse.

Reading trends in a specific field is not an easy task.
While there are clear changes visible to everyone, many changes operate behind the scenes, leaving traces here and there in reality.
Therefore, capturing trends is a task that requires a high degree of expertise.
Expertise grows with the accumulation of time.
Looking at the composition of the 2025 education trends, I felt that the writers' sense of touch and discernment in capturing and describing trends were also continuously growing.
And if this work continues every year, I am confident that this series will become a wonderful treasure trove for diagnosing the reality of our education, organizing discourse, and forecasting the future.

--- p.7

In these challenging times for education, the "Republic of Korea Education Trends Series," in which a group of education experts, including field teachers, participate, continues to provide better content and practical alternatives year after year.
This project, now in its fourth year, has focused on diagnosing educational issues from the perspective of policy targets and seeking alternatives for all.
The newly released "Education Trends in Korea 2025" begins with an overview of Korean education through statistics and policy analysis. It then focuses on cultural aspects, including teachers' right to education, students' human rights, school culture, parental culture, and multicultural education, diagnosing problems and suggesting alternatives.

--- p.12

The diagnosis of educational trends is scientific and logical.
Criticism was abundant and sharp, and alternatives were also presented according to each person's understanding and position.
So what now? What to do.
The future is not uncertain.
Shouldn't we read this book to avoid being deceived by the stories of those who confuse us with discourse about the uncertain future?
--- p.16

As expected, it did not disappoint.
We provide a realistic look at what has happened in the educational field since 2024 through statistics, policies, and culture.
And, following the agenda of the 2025 National Assembly, we forecast the changes that will have a significant impact on the educational field, including the integration of pre-school education, Neulbom School, AI digital textbooks, the high school credit system, expansion of medical school quotas, education finance, superintendent elections, and the 22nd National Assembly's education agenda.
There are no issues that are being damaged.
There are no issues to miss.
We face head-on the challenges our education faces tomorrow.
So there is not a single article to skip.

--- p.20

While Korean education has achieved the outward achievement of perfecting school education, it is internally facing various new problems that will arise in the future.
It is no exaggeration to say that the future of education depends on how we respond to these problems.
What we must actively respond to in the future is the environmental changes that will occur due to population decline.
Recently, our country has entered an era of population decline due to extreme low birth rates.
According to the future population statistics projections by Statistics Korea, the population is expected to begin declining starting in 2020, reaching 47.107 million in 2050 and 37.182 million in 2070.

--- p.14

“In a way, the core of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s education policy is not only its neoliberal ideology, but also its ‘bold’ pursuit of policies that enjoy strong support from parents and the public.
This is a typical example of so-called "populism." Populism appears in various forms among both progressives and conservatives, left and right.
And in modern politics, populism isn't necessarily a negative thing.
It increases public participation in politics and also serves as a check on the privileged class.
From a politician's perspective, it can increase his or her approval rating and create momentum for state administration.
In other words, the appropriate use of populism is an element of stable state administration.”
--- p.65

“Schools have long warned that teacher burnout is reaching critical levels due to out-of-control classrooms, excessive complaints, and increasing workloads.
Although teacher healing and relationship restoration training have been conducted at the school and education office level, it appears that healing teachers' minds alone was not enough to prevent teacher burnout.
Since the Seoi Elementary School incident, teachers have been calling for the creation of a warm community where they can empathize with and support each other's pain, both inside and outside of school.
Research on teachers' psychological struggles has shown that what really helps teachers get back on their feet and return to their students is the empathy and advice of fellow teachers, administrators, and students who stand by their teachers.
To protect teachers' mental health, in addition to institutional reform, a system and culture that can overcome teachers' fears and anxieties through emotional support and solidarity based on trust within the school community is more urgently needed than ever.
--- p.96

A generational shift in parents has occurred.
The majority of parents of elementary school children today are in their 30s and 40s, born in the 1980s and 1990s.
According to the research results, parents born in the 1980s have different expectations for school, perceptions of their children's education, and general communication styles than parents of older generations.
As Korean millennials, they tend to view individuals and organizations as having a 'transactional contractual' relationship, and thus demand immediate and specific compensation. They are familiar with digital culture, use various communication tools, and are good at multitasking, such as using two or more media simultaneously.
They also like to share and talk with others, showing a characteristic of wanting to constantly communicate.
Although they have a strong individualistic tendency, they also have a strong desire to participate in organizations and cooperate.

--- p.129

In August 2023, the National Unification Commission recommended that foreign nationals who have immigrated to Korea or naturalized as citizens and those whose parents have immigrated to Korea be referred to as “residents with immigrant backgrounds,” judging that accurate terminology is necessary for inclusion and integration, especially in the field of education, as educational opportunities are provided to foreign national students.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Education expanded the term 'multiculturalism', which is mistakenly thought to be grouped and defined based on the premise of family unity with Koreans, to include all students with immigrant backgrounds, and defined those who have experienced immigration as 'students with immigrant backgrounds' as those whose families (parents) or themselves have experienced immigration.

--- p.147

Although there is controversy over the concept of teacher's authority, the main topic of discussion in the education world since the death of the Seoi Elementary School teacher in 2023 has been the issue of 'the teacher's right to teach' among the concepts of teacher's authority.
The core problems were the malicious complaints from some parents, the indiscriminate reporting of child abuse during educational activities, and the inability of teachers to take any action against students who disrupted classes.
As the largest-ever teachers' struggle unfolded, with over 300,000 people gathering in Yeouido, a socio-political consensus was formed that teachers' authority should be strengthened, and in September 2023, through an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties, the four laws on teachers' authority (Framework Act on Education, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Early Childhood Education Act, Teacher Status Act) were revised to include provisions such as mandating the submission of opinions to the superintendent of education when teachers' educational activities are reported as child abuse, regulating malicious complaints from parents, etc., with the core content that "normal student guidance is not considered child abuse."
At the end of the year, the Child Abuse Punishment Act was also further revised, and is commonly referred to as the '5 Teachers' Rights Act' revision.

--- p.170

As a future task for the integration of the reserves, first and foremost, it is necessary to strengthen communication to restore trust in government policies and resolve conflicts.
Considering the long history of kindergartens and daycare centers being operated separately since liberation, the integration of kindergartens and daycare centers is a difficult issue with a very high level of conflict.
Therefore, what is most important is trust in the whole of us, and trust in the government's reserve integration policy plan, direction, and implementation process.
Although trust in the vision and outlook envisioned when the Ministry of Education merged with the Ministry of Education is paramount, the main reason teachers in the field still fail to trust it is the method of communication.

--- p.220

As the Ministry of Education pushes ahead with ambitious plans for the Nuelbom School, teachers' groups are raising concerns.
Teachers' groups are issuing statements, commentaries, and other publications, making the fundamental argument that it is by no means desirable for children to stay in school for long periods of time for their well-being.
Furthermore, they are arguing for the complete abolition of Neulbom Schools, refuting point by point the specific detailed tasks promoted by the Ministry of Education, such as the authoritarian and undemocratic behavior in the process of recruiting pilot schools, the irresponsible idea of ​​assigning work to temporary teachers, and the low participation rate and resulting waste of budget and manpower that was observed in previous pilot schools.

--- p.228

Since the effectiveness of AI digital textbooks, which do not yet exist, cannot be verified, their effectiveness can be examined through 'AI courseware', which is the closest thing to AI digital textbooks.
The Ministry of Education previously announced plans to operate AI courseware starting in 2025, as a core component of its digital education innovation plan in March 2023, with the goal of introducing an "AI digital textbook platform."
The concept is to incorporate AI technology into textbooks to provide personalized content and assessments for each student.
In an interview with IT Chosun, the Ministry of Education said, “If courseware is introduced, if there are 10 courses in one class, students who understand the learning objectives well can skip straight to 9 to study in depth, and students who are falling behind can review the previous grade level and then study from 1 to 10 step by step, which is expected to enable customized education.”

--- p.255

High schools are really busy these days as the high school credit system is set to be fully implemented in 2025.
As the credit-based curriculum is implemented for all high school grades, the total number of credits to be completed in the curriculum will be adjusted to 192, and guidance such as minimum achievement level1) for each subject will be applied.2) In particular, for the first year students in 2025, the 2022 revised curriculum will be applied for the first time and the subjects will change, so not only the internal evaluation but also the college entrance system, including the 2028 college entrance exam system, will change.
Accordingly, in 2025, the 2nd and 3rd year students will be taught the subjects of the 2015 revised curriculum and the existing college entrance system, while the 1st year students will be taught the 2022 revised curriculum and the new college entrance system for the 2028 school year, so considerable confusion is expected in the field.
--- p.270

However, the 2025 college entrance exams have undergone significant changes that render the original purpose of the four-year advance notice system meaningless.
This is because the Ministry of Education made major revisions under the pretext of university structural reform four months before the regular admissions process.
At the heart of the revision are the 'expansion of medical school enrollment' and the 'non-major admission' policy, which is expected to cause considerable confusion among students, parents, and teachers.
Let's examine the background behind these policies and the changes in admissions that will result from expanding medical school enrollment and non-major admissions.

--- p.297

This year, 2024, the government initially allocated a smaller amount of local education finance grants.
This year, as in the previous year, a tax deficit of approximately 30 trillion won is expected.
This means that the Office of Education will have no choice but to receive less grants in the second half of this year, and 2024 is expected to be similar to 2023.
The reason why local education finances are struggling is due to a decrease in tax revenue, but the bigger reason is the structure in which they must receive 20.79% of the national tax.
The more inaccurate the tax revenue estimates are, the more complex the financial management of educational institutions becomes and the more difficult it becomes to properly implement educational plans.

--- p.330

In fact, there were problems with the direct election system for superintendents of education from the beginning.
The direct election system for superintendents of education was partially implemented in 2007, and a bill to abolish the direct election system was proposed the following year, in 2008.
As soon as the direct election system was introduced, bills to reform the superintendent election system were steadily proposed.
According to the JoongAng Ilbo's analysis of the National Assembly's Bill Information System, approximately 10 amendments related to the superintendent election were proposed between 2008 and 2019 after the implementation of the direct election system for superintendents of education, but were discarded due to expiration of the term of office or reflection of alternatives.

--- p.350

The conservative political forces, the vested interests in our society, believe that maintaining the status quo itself is in line with their political line, and the policies they pursue in the name of reform mostly modify or strengthen the existing policy direction, so there is relatively little social resistance.
For this reason, it was the conservative establishment that made more active and vibrant attempts in the name of reform policies related to education.
Conversely, forces advocating progressive reform can be said to have been relatively passive on educational issues.
This attitude toward educational issues is evident in the Kim Young-sam administration's "May 31st Education Reform," the Lee Myung-bak administration's "High School Diversification 300" policy, which expanded autonomous and specialized high schools, and the Park Geun-hye administration's nationalization of history textbooks. On the other hand, the conservative establishment was sensitive and proactive about the socio-political role of education, while the Democratic Party, which advocates democratic progressive politics, appeared to be passive in responding by underestimating the significance of education policy. This may also have become one of the reasons for the marginalization of the Education Committee in the National Assembly.

--- p.369

A new movement is also beginning in the higher education sector.
In the spring of 2023, the Ministry of Education designated seven cities and provinces as pilot regions for the introduction of RISE, a regional innovation-centered university support system.
In pilot areas, local governments will establish dedicated departments for collaboration with universities, designate RISE centers, and establish RISE plans for 2025 to 2029.
The Ministry of Education plans to support the RISE project in pilot areas as well as in other regions, and establish a RISE project system across all regions by 2025.5) Once the RISE system is established, the way universities operate is expected to change significantly.
Until now, the Ministry of Education has been the main entity providing financial support to universities, and the Ministry of Education has evaluated universities participating in various projects and provided financial support.
However, in the RISE system, the finances required for local university revitalization projects are sent to metropolitan local governments, and the RISE center led by the metropolitan local government creates university support projects appropriate for the region and evaluates and selects participating universities.
Universities must cooperate with, and sometimes be mindful of, local governments, not the Ministry of Education.

--- p.399

Distinguishing the diagnosis and solutions to the university crisis from a conservative and progressive perspective provides important clues to understanding the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's university policies.
As will be discussed in detail in the next section, the current administration's university policy reflects a typical conservative perspective.
In other words, among the two higher education policy tasks of ‘eliminating university rankings’ and ‘strengthening university competitiveness,’ the Yoon Seok-yeol administration is focusing on the latter.
While accepting the superiority and inferiority among universities as an inevitable or natural phenomenon, the government takes a passive stance, arguing that a fair admissions system is sufficient to address this issue. On the other hand, the government is focusing its policy on significantly relaxing various regulations surrounding universities and actively establishing an institutional foundation for universities to cultivate the talents needed for industrial society.

--- p.423

The National Education Commission is not an organization where experts and bureaucrats unilaterally create educational reform plans. Rather, it is an organization that democratically innovates educational reform by discovering educational reform agendas and developing them into reform tasks through a process of citizen participation and deliberation.
Democratic innovation improves the quality of society.
An important indicator of the quality of a society is not just the size of its GDP, but also the extent to which material welfare is evenly distributed among its members, the extent to which citizens have political channels to express their opinions or directly participate in creating and improving institutions, and the extent to which a society is free from social conflict or disintegration, reduces the possibility of violence, fosters a common identity, and enhances social solidarity and integration.

--- p.456

The reason Germany uses education as a strategy for social integration is because it experienced during the German unification process that integration of consciousness is more difficult and takes longer than material improvement.
After the reunification of West and East Germany, the economic gap was somewhat resolved, but the differences in people's thoughts and lifestyles remained a major problem.
To address this, the German government has been working to integrate people's consciousness and reduce social disparities through 'education.'
This German experience provides important lessons for Korea on how to achieve social integration.
South Korea also faces various social challenges, including the division between North and South Korea, economic disparity, and the shift toward a multicultural society.
In order to solve these problems, ‘education’ can play an important role.
We must change people's consciousness through education and create a culture of mutual understanding and cooperation.

--- p.503

How can we increase the birth rate? How can we respond to the shrinking society brought about by low birth rates? What is the Ministry of Education doing to answer these two questions? The government began its full-scale response to the low birth rate issue in 2005, with the enactment of the "Basic Act on Low Birth Rate and Aging Society."
The law stipulates that the 'Low Birth Rate and Aging Society Committee', chaired by the President, will be established to set mid- to long-term policy goals and directions, and that all ministries will participate to establish a basic plan every five years.
Additionally, each central government ministry and local government is required to establish an implementation plan on how to implement the contents reflected in the basic plan.
However, as everyone knows, despite investing 23.5 trillion won in the budget last year, the total fertility rate continues to decline.
Finally, in June, the government announced a policy of mobilizing national capabilities to respond with all its might to the low birth rate problem.24) What policies has the government pursued over the past 20 years?
--- p.519

The civilian government was at a time of paradigm shift, transitioning from the industrialization era to the knowledge-information society and then from a developing country to a developed country.
In this paradigm shift, our education faced two challenges of the times.
One task was to break away from the industrialized education paradigm of developing countries, which had set the task of catching up with developed countries such as the United States, and to establish a foundation for an educational culture that would foster creative talent.
The paradigm of talent development in developing countries, such as competitive entrance exam education, uniform educational content, and rote learning, was deeply rooted in the modern legacy of socialism, such as academic elitism, rigid semi-feudal organizational culture, and uniformity.
Another was to build a new educational foundation for a knowledge-based society driven by globalization and efficiency.
The Education Reform Committee included in the May 31st Education Reform Plan a double-edged sword: "eliminating the semi-feudal industrial society culture" and "presenting a new competitive paradigm called the information society."

--- p.548

A new educational paradigm that will usher in an era of transition emerges from shared awareness of the times through national participation and collaborative imagination and practice.
In France, 25 years ago, the president initiated a national education debate with the participation of 1 million citizens and led by 20,000 experts.
The National Education Commission was created for that purpose, but it seems to have ceased to function as expected.
Just like the May 31st educational reform period, the presidential election could be a time for exploring a new educational paradigm.
I would like to conclude by asking three key questions that UNESCO has proposed as part of its reform agenda.

What should we continue to do?
What should we stop doing?
What needs to be creatively re-created?

--- p.570