The following study aims to analyze the policy of lifelong education in Korea and the factors which influenced its formation, to review the process by which this policy has changed over the decades, and finally to discuss the distinguishing features o...
The following study aims to analyze the policy of lifelong education in Korea and the factors which influenced its formation, to review the process by which this policy has changed over the decades, and finally to discuss the distinguishing features of Korea's lifelong educational policy and the problems it faces. For these purposes, this study has collected relevant information regarding lifelong education policy in Korea since its liberation from colonial rule in 1945 to 2004 using various documents and internet sources, and has traced the policy development according to temporal periods. Based on this body of information, this paper analyzes the formative factors which led to changes in Korea's lifelong education policy and attempts to elicit conclusions regarding the special characteristics which mark this educational policy in Korea, as well as to present its problems.
The analytical framework employed in this study is built on the foundation of previous studies in this subject while at the same time re-adapting the content of those earlier studies to the goals of the present paper. Regarding the formative factors leading to transformations in educational policy, the present study embraces the basic conclusions drawn by preceding studies but considers in addition the contemporary changes in social, economic, and intellectual perceptions which penetrated Korean society and the world. This approach is based on the idea that the formulation and implementation of lifelong education has a close and pertinent relationship to society at large.
The study divides the period of analysis into units of 10 years for its initial analysis, and then proceeds to re-conduct an examination considering the period in 20-year units. As for the causative elements leading to changes in policy, the large categories considered by this study are the changes experienced by the recipients of education, changes in Korea's domestic society, changes in the trends of thought in international organizations, and modifications in social, economic, and intellectual perceptions. More specific factors are considered within the framework of these four large categories.
Based on a periodical analysis of lifelong education policy following the above temporal framework, this paper ascertains that in the 1940s and 1950s Korea focused its educational policy on eliminating illiteracy to achieve the goal of eradicating Japanese colonial legacies and enhancing the nation's fledgling democracy. In the 1960s and 70s, Korea emphasized the need to fortify basic academic skills and to boost technological education of skills necessary for economic development. In the 1980s and early 90s, the increased demand for individualized lifelong education led to a policy supporting the quantitative expansion of lifelong education facilities and institutes, while the late 90s witnessed the development of human resources and the implementation of various qualification programs, along with the creation of new educational spaces in step with the growth of information technology. Since the year 2000, the rapid rise of civic organizations has led to the expansion of areas of education, while new governmental policy began to support lifelong education activities in the private arena.
On examining the process of these chronological transformations of Korea's lifelong education policy, this study draws the conclusion that the factors which influenced changes in policy are respectively as follows. As regards the recipients of education, the increase of citizens' life spans and the rise in their education levels were causes of policy change, while the development of information technology was a factor in the educational environment which also transformed policy. Meanwhile, in terms of Korea's domestic society, changes such as Korea's liberation from colonial domination, the eruption of the Korean war, the implementation of the "New Village Movement", the IMF financial crisis, the emergence of the policy of greater autonomous local administration, and the growth of private civic organizations are identified by this paper as the influential factors. As for the trends of opinion in international organizations, the greatest impact on Korea's lifelong education policy came from the agenda of UNESCO and OECD. Meanwhile Korea's maturation into a knowledge-based society and its concomitant induction into a knowledge-based economy were the key elements which transformed Korea's lifelong education policy in socio-economic and intellectual terms.
The examination of various statistical and legal data and preceding studies yielded the following conclusions regarding how the above-mentioned factors influenced Korea's lifelong education policy.
First among the factors related to the recipients of education, Korea's demographic shift to an aged society has prompted the need to expand the age target of lifelong education and to recognize the need for employment-education training for adults and the elderly and to provide substantive measures to meet this need. Secondly, in addition to the increase in the old-age demographic group, the enhanced academic level of education recipients and the concomitantly intensified desire for learning has stimulated various policies for vitalizing institutes of higher education and qualification programs, and increased the demand for better means of conferring official recognition for learner's educational achievements and for a systematized infrastructure for learning. Thirdly, among the environmental conditions surrounding the recipient of education, the development of information technology has made access to learning easier for students, thus providing the foundation for more active and diversified forms of study.
Along with the transformation of the recipients of education, the social changes in Korea's domestic society also influenced its evolving lifelong education policies. The first among these was Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial domination in 1945, which led to a strong awareness that Korean-language literacy was essential for the establishment of an autonomous and democratic nation-state, thus stimulating programs for adult literacy education. Secondly, the eruption of the Korea War not long after Korea's liberation necessitated the education of technologically skilled individuals to rebuild the devastated Korean economy, resulting in the establishment of various schools of technological training. Thirdly, as Korea entered the 1970s the newly implemented "New Village Movement" employed education as the practical means for the movement's success, thus laying the foundation for governmental-support of lifelong education at a local level, and serving as a motivation for expanding the fields of education. Fourth, the IMF crisis of the late 1990s was an important turning point for Korea's adoption of the trends toward a knowledge-based society and a knowledge-based economy, and the weakness of Korea's social structure that was exposed by the financial crisis prompted the government to pay greater interest to the issue of lifelong education and to present related human-resources policies for the country's development. Fifth, the policy of autonomous local government which was more fully realized with the 1995 elections contributed to the localization of lifelong education and laid the infrastructure for lifelong education in the regional community. Lastly, the surging influence of civic organizations since 2000 has allowed citizens to voice the criticism that existing lifelong education was only geared toward human resource development and that lifelong education should be enlarged to include the promotion of better civic life, and this in turn led to the expansion of the areas of lifelong education and the development of relevant agencies and institutions.
Another factor which had an impact on Korea's lifelong education policy was the evolution of ideas in international organizations, among which UNESCO was the most decisive in influencing the matrix and the ideological foundation of Korea's lifelong education in its earliest infancy and in its developmental phases. UNESCO remains influential, particularly in its efforts to supplement the problematic gaps left by a lifelong education policy that focuses exclusively on the development of human resources, helping Korea to achieve a new balance that goes beyond its earlier educational ideologies. The discussion within the OECD regarding lifelong education, which along with UNESCO forms the two major influences on Korea's lifelong education, provided the theoretical background for the implementation of lifelong educational support policies such as knowledge and information based human resources development, off-campus and corporate-based university education, academic credit-bank systems and educational account programs, and paid and unpaid learning leaves from the workplace.
As examined so far, the factors which respectively influenced Korea's lifelong education in each period of the process of its evolutionary change were Korea's liberation and the Korean war in the 1940s and 50s, the "New Village Movement" and the ideology of UNESCO in the 60s and 70s, the rising level of learning and the lengthening of life span expectancy, the IMF financial crisis, the arrival of a knowledge-based economy concomitant to a knowledge-based society, the development of information technology, and the OECD's Recurrent Educationl theory in the 80s and 90s, and the greater autonomy local governmental administrations and the surge of civic organization since the year 2000.
Based on the above analysis, this study concludes that the unique features exhibited by Korea in the process of changes in its lifelong educational policies are as follows:
First, Korea's lifelong education policy differs in each period according to the level of governmental intervention and the level of voluntary desire on the part of the recipients of education. Secondly, on examining the domestic social factors which influenced modifications in Korea's lifelong education policies, it can be observed that these educational policies served as social solutions in times of national crises. Thirdly, it was only in the late 1980s that the special characteristics of the recipients of education was taken into consideration, and it was only then that the Korean government began to pay attention to the individuals who were the subjects of education in formulating its educational policies. Fourth, between the 1960s and the 1980s, Korea's lifelong education was influenced to a large degree by UNESCO's ideologies, while in the 1990s, it was the OECD which became the pivot upon which Korea's educational policies continues to turn.
The analysis given so far leads to the following conclusions.
Korea's lifelong education policy was predisposed toward producing solutions to the issue of national development, particularly economic development, and therefore failed to embrace the potential recipients of education in all directions, thus resulting in disseminating the perception that lifelong education served only a minority of citizens and thus causing an inequality of lifelong education among the classes. Moreover, as a solution for national crises and as a means of national development, Korea's educational policy has thus far focused more on the OECD's Recurrent Education theory rather than reflecting UNESCO's early ideas, thus rendering the mainstream trend in Korean lifelong education those policies which focus exclusively on human resources development based on theories of education-capital.
These problems attest to the fact that Korea's lifelong education policy remains at a rudimentary stage, and that the ultimate goal of lifelong education is unclear, thus producing a situation in which the objective of resolving short-term problems are mistakenly comprehended as the fundamental goals of lifelong education.
In light of these problems, Korea should seek to diversify input channels for receiving opinions in the process of formulating its lifelong education policy, and must undertake a more meticulous analysis of the recipients of education who will be the target of these policies so as to embrace the entire spectrum of society in its policies. Also, before adopting the educational ideas of international organizations, Korea should review the applicability of these ideas to Korea's own society from a long-term perspective in order to maintain a necessary balance and direct development in a socially constructive manner. Most importantly, a serious reexamination of the objective of Korea's lifelong education needs to take place so as to provide the fundamental basis for improvement.
The suggestions that this paper offers on the basis of the discussion above is, first of all, that future studies should make an effort to provide insight into how far government should intervene in lifelong education programs and on what areas future policies should turn their focus. Secondly, active discussion should take place that will seek to define the primary concept of lifelong education and its constitutive elements, ideas which underly all of Korea's educational policies. Thirdly, Korea needs to establish practical measures to foster experts in lifelong education and to assemble opinion channels that will help improve awareness regarding lifelong education among the learners who are its very subject. Fourth, because there is always the potential that there will arise contingencies and variables which lead to results which varies from the originally intended policy, Korea needs to accumulate in advance research and studies that will serve as the foundation of policy implementation.