In the sweltering summer of 2018, a disturbing incident unfolded during the monthly leadership meeting at Songdo International City's Incheon Global Campus, attended by representatives from four international universities. An African American employee present recounted a disheartening experience from that morning: as he left his on-campus apartment, he was subjected to a racial slur beginning with 'N' by a Korean student, who was apparently visiting from a nearby high school. This incident, which ignited anger in the employee, was formally addressed during the meeting.
The question, "What should one learn in secondary education before advancing to higher education?" is inherently multifaceted. At the macro level, it involves a country's educational philosophy, ideology, and values, reflecting the ethos of a given era. At the meso level, it pertains to how regional education offices and individual schools administer and endorse their educational programs. At the micro level, it relates to the objectives and content that teachers incorporate within their curricula to achieve desired learning outcomes.
The severity of the aforementioned incident may be interpreted differently by each reader of this article, depending on their individual intellect, sensitivity, or cultural background. However, within the Incheon Global Campus—a community uniting a diverse population of students, professors, and staff from about 50 countries across four foreign universities—it was seen as a significant issue. The incident provoked a reflection on what is happening at the secondary education level that could lead a local high school student to such behavior.
As of February 2023, data released by the Ministry of Justice reveals that over 200,000 foreign students are studying at universities in our country. The majority of these students are from Vietnam, followed closely by China (around 61,000) when only degree programs are considered. Notably, the number of Vietnamese students learning Korean in South Korea has surged in recent years (currently about 40,000), making up the majority of all foreign students. Following Vietnam and China, the largest groups come from Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Japan, Myanmar, and Nepal, with countries like Indonesia, France, India, Russia, the USA, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia each contributing between 1,000 to 2,000 students.
With approximately 3.1 million students (including graduate students) enrolled in our universities in 2023, about 6.5% of all students in post-secondary education are foreigners. This is a significant increase compared to 20 years ago when the figure was less than 1%. Interestingly, this percentage surpasses that of the United States, where approximately 1 million (or 5%) out of 20 million university students are international students.
The aforementioned incident should not be dismissed as merely the immaturity of a single student. It underscores the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging—or "DEIB"—in South Korea's future, particularly in the realm of education. The increase in foreign students at our universities and the broadening of societal perspectives should not be viewed in isolation. Our society, once firmly grounded in collective values rooted in Confucian tradition, is evolving towards individualism as it matures into a pluralistic democracy.
So, what are the most critical skills a student should acquire during secondary education in our country? As universities increasingly admit a diverse student body, the abilities and attributes needed to thrive in the increasingly multicultural and globalized South Korean society must evolve correspondingly.
Instances of elementary schools where the majority of a class come from multicultural families, the prevalence of Nepalese students on a university campus in Goseong, Gangwon-do making Koreans feel like foreigners, and the personal experience of my wife in a middle school where 20 to 30% of students in a class are foreign, pose fundamental questions: "What should we teach in schools?" and "What should students learn in schools?" These situations prompt deeper reflection on whether we are adequately recognizing and emphasizing the values that are more relevant today in an era where students of increasingly diverse backgrounds learn together.
Every year, the news recurrently highlights issues regarding incoming college students' deficiency in basic academic skills. Criticisms are frequently leveled at students majoring in STEM fields, who struggle to keep up with their college-level classes due to an insufficient foundation in calculus acquired in high school. Similarly, concerns are raised about the overall inadequate literacy skills of freshmen, preventing them from fully comprehending college-level textbooks.
It may not be long before we witness a university professor expressing concern about a new college student who struggles to mingle with peers of diverse races, nationalities, and cultures. The professor might ask, "What were you doing in high school if you didn't cultivate cross-cultural competency?"
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* Disclaimer
This content is an edited summary of the content in Korean published on University Choice 12 in July 2023. For the original article, please download at http://naver.me/GWrHYQ2e.
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