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Debate over South Korea's plans to lower entry age for elementary schools

SEOUL: South Korea's plan to lower the entry age for elementary school to five years old from the current six has triggered a debate among teachers, parents and civic groups in the country.

The government plans to introduce the lower age policy as early as 2025, with an aim to fully implement the new system by 2029.

Education Minister Park Soon-ae said her ministry sought to lower the school entry age to allow public education a year earlier, with an aim to reduce the burden of education expenses on parents.

According to a Korea Times report, during a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk-yeol last Friday, Park said that changing the school admission age could also help tackle the labour force shortages amid the country's rapidly declining birthrate and aging population.

She said this would also allow children to begin working earlier after college graduation.

Yoon has given his nod to the proposal and ordered Park to start working on it as soon as possible.

The education ministry is expected to launch a survey involving 20,000 students and parents in September to gather opinions on the matter. If they reach a social consensus, school admission will be gradually expanded to five-year-old children starting 2025.

If implemented, it would be the first reform in elementary school admission age in 76 years since the establishment of the Education Act in 1949.

However, the proposal has ignited fierce public debate, with those supporting the plan saying it saves one school year and may help the country address its labour shortage.

But more teachers seem to be opposed to the plan as some questioned the benefits a child can get from entering school earlier.

"From my experience, many first-graders (who are six years old) find it challenging to adapt to school life. Not only in terms of keeping up with classes, but teaching them involves toilet training and even guidance in eating lunch. It would be far more challenging for five-year-olds," a teacher told The Korea Times.

"And before adopting the new age system, there are so many things to prepare such as revising the school curriculum and providing adequate training to teachers, which would require a lot of time and resources."

The Korean Federation of Teachers' Association, which represents about 130,000 schoolteachers nationwide, condemned the government's decision.

It said the plan does not seem to consider the developmental characteristics of children in early childhood.

"Reforming the school admission age will require tremendous financial input to increase the number of teachers as well as necessary resources," it said in a statement.

"Similar proposals had been made during the previous Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations, but all fell through, only causing confusion in the process."

The National Association of Private Kindergarten said the government made the announcement abruptly without any discussions with people involved in the matter, such as parents and teachers, or conducting proper research about the policies.

It described the plan as absurd as children of this age currently accounted for almost half of all children attending kindergartens.

At online forums for mothers ― commonly known as "mom cafes" ― many also expressed concerns that enrolling a child earlier would only make it tougher for the child to cope.

The Korea Times said that the starting age for school varied by country, but it is set at six years in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

As of 2019, in 26 countries among the 38 OECD member states, children become eligible to start the first year of compulsory school at the age of six.

Students start school when they are seven years old in eight countries including Finland and Estonia, while some countries such as Ireland and the United Kingdom enrol four-year-old children in primary schools.

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