[Insight & Opinion] The Beginning of Education Reform Lies in Regulatory Innovation

[Asia Economy] Education is said to be a century-long plan. This is because education must be conducted with a long-term perspective and foresight. On an individual level, it means that education is an important activity that can influence a lifetime of 100 years. In reality, education is the source of national competitiveness and an activity that determines an individual's life.

Despite the importance of education, we feel that we are irresponsible about it. Everyone knows well that the current education system has many problems, but it seems that people have given up, thinking that education is difficult to change. Although we know that knowledge-centered education and exam-oriented education must be transformed, fundamental educational innovation is beyond our reach. South Korea's education has been neglected in this way for a long time.

What is our vision for education? Is it simply to transmit past knowledge, or to nurture each person's talents and dreams? We clearly know that the answer is the latter. Then, we must firmly establish a national consensus on this and move solely in that direction.

Now is the time for everyone to take responsibility and work together to change education. Citizens must unite and demand that the government carry out fundamental educational innovation. We must properly teach creativity, problem-solving skills, and collaboration abilities that the era requires beyond mere knowledge. Every student should be helped to discover their own talents and dreams. Even if their grades are low, they should be encouraged to develop their unique and differentiated talents. That is the path education must take.

Why do we educate? It is to properly nurture people. Education helps all members of society develop their talents and capabilities to faithfully perform their roles and live valuable and happy lives. Therefore, education must ensure that not a single person is left behind. Although it is not an easy change for our society, which has long considered average education and group education as natural, from now on, we must shift to personalized education and education that respects individuality.

How should we start? We must boldly innovate regulations related to education first. If you think about it, there is hardly any field with as many regulations and controls as education. Education is filled with regulations and controls, knowingly or unknowingly. Under the pretext of educating people, all kinds of regulations and interference overflow. Evaluating and ranking students solely based on exam scores is also a form of regulation. We need to question and review from the ground up whether most of the administrative actions carried out by the Ministry of Education and education offices to manage universities and primary and secondary schools are unnecessary regulations. The university entrance examination system also requires fundamental reconsideration from the perspective of regulatory innovation.

It is not only industrial regulations that need improvement. The education sector should also be selected as a top priority for regulatory innovation, and fundamental deregulation should be reviewed and boldly implemented from the perspective of negative regulation. After establishing the vision for education we aim for, the educational content and methods we pursue, everything that hinders their implementation should be regarded as regulation and abolished.

Let us innovate educational regulations to activate autonomy and decentralization in the education sector. Autonomy and decentralization are not just issues between the central government and local governments. Education is precisely where autonomy and decentralization are desperately needed. Let us boldly attempt education regulatory special zones or negative regulations in the education sector. Only then can we change South Korea's education system, which many have given up on as unchangeable. This will create success stories in education, and as the number of success stories increases, the much-desired true educational innovation can spread rapidly. Education can be changed and must be changed.

Kim Hyun-gon, Director of the National Assembly Future Institute