Seo Nam-soo, Minister of Education, said this on November 3 in an interview with the Korea Economic Daily and added, "This year's HR forum will focus on how to resolve the problem of discrimination arising at birth or from barriers created in the process of social development." Minister Seo will deliver a speech at the forum to be held at Sheraton Grande Walkerhill in Seoul for three days between November 5 and 7 about the philosophy behind the educational policy of the Park Geun-hye administration stressing interdisciplinary knowledge and the creation of a merit-based society.

 

The minister said, "The most fundamental role of public education is encourage children to achieve their dreams without regard to their gender, family background, race, or income level. It is the current government's goal to create a society that rewards young talents who can overcome all kinds of barriers and come up with ideas that break the old mold."

 

At the Global HR Forum 2013 whose main theme is "Beyond Walls," the participants will suggest ten major barriers Korean society must get over and search for solutions to that end. One of these barriers the discussants will point to is the decades-long walls between liberal arts and sciences tracks imposed on high school students.

 

Minister Seo said, "The fact that the introduction of the integrative [with no distinction between liberal arts and sciences students] scholastic aptitude test for college-bound students has been postponed to the 2021 academic year doesn't mean the present government handed over the difficult job of reforming the educational policy to the next administration. An educational curriculum reform committee will be launched this month that will take the issue heads-on. The committee will lead the initiative to change the curriculum by 2021 and administer the whole process from textbook writing, teacher training, to pilot program implementation."

 

"In order to create a truly merit-based society based solely on what one can contribute to society not on what school one graduated from, our government will lend support to local colleges and vocational schools in their specialization efforts. The government will come up with standard models for these educational institutions to follow so that they can create their own model for specialization."