"My Sister Was a Math Dropout"... Yoon Hee-sook Repeatedly Calls for 'Education Reform'

A portion of Yoon Hee-sook, United Future Party lawmaker's Facebook post on the 8th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Yoon Hee-sook, a member of the Future United Party who gained great attention with her National Assembly speech on the Lease 3 Act from the tenant's perspective, has been raising her voice daily about the need for educational innovation. Following private education and university education, she emphasized the necessity of personalized education using information technology (IT) by citing the case of her older sister, who was a 'supoja' (someone who gave up on math).

On the 8th, Yoon said on Facebook, "Education worldwide has been changing at an incredible speed over the past decade."

Referring to her older sister, who is five years older and a 'supoja,' Yoon said, "Is it inevitable that someone like my sister, a supoja, simply doesn't have math in their fate? That's not the case," and emphasized, "From the teacher's perspective, who has to teach many children, it was difficult to explain twice or thrice to students who couldn't keep up, so they had no choice but to give up, but that paradigm itself is now rapidly changing."

She explained, "First, if all educational content is available online, a 4th-grade student can look up something they didn't understand in 2nd grade anytime without hesitation or embarrassment. Second, if AI (artificial intelligence) provides practice problems tailored to the student's level, all children can grasp concepts at their own pace."

Personalized education using AI and online resources is possible. Yoon said, "Children who are good at it finish factoring in 30 minutes and move on, while those who are not wrestle with it in their rooms for 10 hours until they understand and move on," adding, "At the school where I taught, the dropout rate in basic statistics was always high, but when combining this personalized online education program with the professor's lectures, the dropout rate became zero."

However, she pointed out that Korea is still stuck in the old paradigm. She criticized, "Thanks to dazzling technological advancements, it has become possible to pursue various educational values together. However, despite Korea's reputation as an IT powerhouse, it is a laggard in educational innovation. We are still stuck in the paradigm of the era when my sister gave up on math."

She cited regulations and teacher resistance as the main reasons. Yoon said, "There are very strong regulations on the use of online education, and teachers' resistance is significant, making it very difficult for new attempts to break into classrooms," adding, "Among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, our digital education utilization ranks low."

Yoon emphasized that the challenge for our education is a strong direction to actively utilize new technologies to improve the academic ability of all children and ensure no one is left behind, supported by teachers' motivation, teaching methods, and educational content support. She said, "Young teachers may like the changed role of teachers more, but resistance from those afraid to learn new things and change themselves will also be strong," adding, "How we break through this will determine the fate of the next generation and the country."

She also criticized the government's 'Digital New Deal' direction as not fitting this need. She lamented, "The real decisive obstacle right now is the government," and said, "The recently announced Digital New Deal mainly focuses on installing Wi-Fi and distributing tablets in elementary and middle schools. What can we do about this perspective and insight?"

Yoon, who became a hot topic in the National Assembly by pointing out real estate issues, has been voicing educational concerns on Facebook for three consecutive days. On the 6th, she criticized private education by saying, "The current banner of our education is, in a word, 'Go to private academies on your own if you want to learn more, or not; only children from wealthy families become dragons through their parents' financial power in better private education,'" and on the 7th, she criticized, "The surge in private education expenses is because the total university enrollment quota is tightly restricted due to the Capital Region Readjustment Planning Act."