Current Situation of Girls’ Education and Educational Policies on the Gender Equality in Korea
Elae Sook Chung
Senior Fellow, Korean Women development Institute
E-mail :
A Paper Presented to Regional Seminar
on Gender Equality in Basic Education
Kyoto, Japan
29M November 2001
Current Situation of Girls' Education and Educational Policies on the Gender Equality in Korea
1. Current Situation of Girls' Education
A. School Enrolment Ratios and Drop-out Rates
Enrolment ratios at all levels of school are increasing since 1990. In 2000 the ratios for elementary school are 99.1% for the female, 98.0% for the male and those for middle school are 99% for both sexes. And also female enrolment ratio for high school is increasing up to the level of male. But that for college and universities is 60.7% for women and 99.1% for men.
Enrolment ratios at higher levels of schools are lower among women than among men. So, the access to higher education of women is said to be more limited relatively than, that of men.
Drop-out rates of all levels of school are very low. And those are lower among women than. among men in high schools.
B. Advancement Rates
Women’s advancement rate to higher education has steadily increased. In 2000, advancement rates to junior college are 19.1 % for women and 15.3 % for men. Although women’s rate of advancement in the level of junior college is higher than that of men, woman’s rate of advancement in the universities is lower.
C. Vocational High School
There is a significant enrolment gap between sexes according to the
educational courses of vocational high schools. In 2000, girls accounted for 79.9
percent in commercial schools, While in technical schools they made up only 11.4
percent of students.
These figures show that there still remain traditional prejudices towards female students seeking to choose different courses and master new technologies.
D. Women’s Majors at Colleges and Universities
Selection of majors at colleges, and universities is mostly related to students' future jobs and social achievements. There is a significant gender difference in
some majors. For example, in 2000 the 77.9% of the students majoring in natural
sciences and engineering are male students whereas female students comprise only the 22.1%. Especially women are extremely low in numbers in engineering(below 10%). But the number of female students is increasing in humanities and teaching profession, in which women comprise 56.1% and 62.8% respectively in 2000.
Such biases in vocational education in high schools and in fields of majors affect the careers women go into. Women workers are concentrated to the traditionally feminine jobs such as teacher, nurse. Career education for girls should be conducted systematically in accordance with the level of schools to diversify women’s careers.
E. Female Teachers
The number of female teachers is continuously increasing in all levels of schools. In 2000, the rate of female teachers is 64.4% in elementary schools, 55.4% in middle schools and 27.7% in -high schools. Female principals are 6.9% in elementary schools, 8.7% in middle schools and 4.5% in high schools in 2000.
These statistics shows that female administrators such as principals and vice-principals have not increased in accordance with the increment of female teachers. Consequently, the undesirable phenomenon that higher position is for male and lower position is " for female is intensified. It's consequence is that the education systems are organizations which are not gender-neutral, but mainly controlled by men.
H. Educational policies for women
1. Establishing a legal foundation for gender- equal education
Major legal foundation for prohibiting sexism and accomplishing equality of both sexes was provided in 1995.
1) Framework Act on Women’s Development
The Framework Act on Women’s Development, completed in February 1995, stipulates, "In school education, the state and the local governments should inspire the idea of equality of both sexes and extend educational opportunities for women.11
2) Gender Discrimination Prevention & Relief Act
The Gender Discrimination Prevention & Relief Act was passed in February 1999 in accordance with the notion of equality of both sexes espoused by the national constitution. It purports to realize gender equality by prohibiting gender discrimination in providing and appropriating employment, education, goods, facilities, services, etc. and by enforcing laws and policies to protect the rights and interests of sufferers in relation to these matters. Article 4 of the act prohibits gender discrimination in education and says, 'Public institutions and their users should not discriminate between men and women concerning opportunity, condition, method, and other matters in education.' The execution of correction and relief measures on the occurrence of gender discrimination in education can be possible on the ground of this act.
The government designates such typical cases of gender discrimination in education as follows:
- Assessing admission based on gender
- Evaluating persons for training abroad, job training, etc., excluding a particular sex, not depending on objective criteria.
- Providing educational conditions or administrative or financial supports for educational activities based on gender
- Providing different contents and courses depending on gender
- Providing and operating different contents and courses depending not on qualifications but on gender
- Suggesting educational goals, organizing educational contents, and providing guidance for living that yield different views for the sexes
- Limiting opportunities for activities or discriminating contents of activities depending on gender
- Limiting opportunities for selecting school courses, scope of selecting careers, etc., depending on gender
- Evaluating results of education using gender-specific criteria
- Other education-related instances in which a particular sex is discriminated, excluded, or limited without sufficient justification
3) New article in favour of gender equality in education
In January 2000, a new article was released to promote equal education for both sexes. The article stipulates that the state and the local governments should establish and execute policies for realizing the spirit of gender equality in education. Educational measures should also be provided to strongly nurture fields in which women do not play an active role. Gender-Equal Education Council' should be also set up in order to enhance gender equality in education under the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development.
2. Administrative system for promoting educational policy for women
The Ministry of Gender Equality plans, promotes and supervises policies for women in Korea. However, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development promotes and controls the educational policy for women. In. spite of this fact, it was not until very recently that a department in charge of educational policy for women was established in the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. When the government of Dae-jung Kim was set up in February 1998, the Office of Educational Policy for Women was created under the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development.
The Office of Educational Policy for Women takes charge of the following affairs:
1) Establish and coordinate educational policies for women
2) Develop policies promoting career education and guidance for female students
3) Protect rights and interests of women teachers
4) Develop career capabilities of women
5) Develop policies for social and career education of women
6) Plan to expand educational participation of women
Korean Women’s Development Institute functions as a policy research institute for the advancement of female education in the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. It has conducted researches for analyzing the actual status of sexism and for developing equal policies in education for 18 years. Its accumulated research findings are reflected in the process of establishing the government’s female-oriented education policies.
3. Major policies for female education in Korea and their achievements
Korea does not have a separate National EFA Plan, as it is incorporated into
female education policies geared towards gender equality in education.
1) Major female education policies
Female education policies in Korea are planned and promoted centering on the 1st basic plan on women’s policies (1998-2002). Ms plan includes such policies as follows:
(1) Establishment of gender-equal educational course
oRemoving gender discriminative contents from school textbooks
oOffering Vocational Studies and Home Economics to both sexes
oIncreasing the number of coeducational secondary schools
oInspiring the idea of gender equality for school teachers
(2) Active development of female professionals in the non-traditional fields
oIntensifying career guidance for female students
oIncreasing opportunities for female students to advance to technical high schools
oExpanding opportunities in science and engineering colleges for female students
oSupporting informatization education for women
o Having training institutions for public servants extend educational opportunities to female students
(3) Support of life-long education for women
oIntensifying women's functions in society
o Building information network among social education institutions for women
oForming and operating an association of social education institutions for women
(4) Expansion of female participation in educational policy-making
oIncreasing the number of female professionals including school principals and vice-principals
oEncouraging universities to invite more female professors
2) Major achievements
(1) Male students were previously required to take 'Vocational Studies' while female students were required to take up 'Home Economics' in high school. This changed in 1995 when both boys and girls in junior high school were required to take both subjects. Based on the seventh revision of curriculum, students will need to complete both subjects until first year high school after 2002.
(2) Continued research and various efforts have been made in order to remove gender discriminative contents of textbooks used in primary and secondary schools. Researches to analyse gender discriminating contents have been conducted periodically whenever new textbooks are developed based on the revision of school curricular. The results of the research were reflected in the educational policies set forth by the Ministry of Education. Gender equality has been improved in proportion or vocational activities of the characters found in the textbooks. At present, a research is being carried out in order to develop systems for examining gender discrimination in the contents of textbooks under development.
(3) In technical high schools, exclusivity of admission to male students was abolished in departments that have been traditionally recognized as male fields. These include electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering. Institutes for training military professionals, particularly the Military Academy, have permitted a fixed proportion of female entrants since 1998.
(4) The Girl-Friendly Science Program was developed in 1999 for secondary school students with the purpose of increasing female entrants to the science and technical fields. This program has been implemented since 2000 in schools, assembly halls of local residents, and in other settings. Female Student Informatization Competition and Pre-camp, where capabilities for computer software and hardware are exhibited and assessed, have been held since 2000 with the purpose of enlarging educational opportunities for female students in the field of informatization. A study of developing Girl-friendly Mathematics Program is being carried out in 2001.
(5) The Gender-Equal Education Council was organized in order to give advice to the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development in relation to realizing gender equality in education. Relevant educational materials for teachers are also developed and distributed.
(6) Instructional materials for teachers of sexuality education are developed and distributed to preschools, elementary and secondary schools in order to cultivate the idea of equality for both sexes and to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence. CD-ROM for teaching how to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence was also developed and distributed.
(7) To promote female participation in decision-making, the proportion of female principals and vice-principals was to be reflected when evaluating the Education Offices of every province and city in 2000, and the proportion of female professors is also reflected in evaluation indexes for supporting, university finances. National universities are encouraged to place more female professors in major positions, and the result was reflected in evaluation items for restructuring of national universities in 2001, Currently, the way of introducing the affirmative action for female professors in national and public universities is being developing.
3) Problems in the process of driving female education policies
Both man and woman can access secondary and higher educational institutions and obtain as much education as the want in Korea. People generally recognize that no other field equals the educational field when it comes to gender equality. Not a few principals and vice-principals believe that it is desirable to educate boys and girls about their traditional gender roles, and not many officers in charge of education policy regard it gender-discriminative to teach traditional gender roles.
In this kind of situation, the intention of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development to foster gender equality in education is weak and has yet to make gender equality its main policy. But an office in charge of promoting gender equality policy in education (the Office of Educational Policy for Women) was established in 1998. Thus, the most important item was achieved in promoting gender equality educational policy.
III. Suggestions for national-level cooperation system to accomplish Darkar EFA Goal V
1. Analyse the actual status of sexism in coeducation and develop measures to improve coeducation system
Background and purpose
Coeducation is implemented in secondary schools worldwide. Researches carried out in the USA and European countries have revealed that coeducation is, not implemented without any gender bias. It only reproduces traditionally fixed ideas for gender role and creates unfavourable conditions for female students. However, to gather such information from each Asian country is not easy. In Korea, coeducation had been expanded since the 1990s, but it was not due to any intention to realize gender-equal education. The expansion was merely prompted by financial and administrative needs.
Therefore, it is a good strategy to discern the actual state of sexism in coeducation in each Asian country and to develop measures for carrying out gender-equal coeducation, to apply the results to various schools in order to set an example, and to share the feedback with other countries. Segregated education may prove to be more common than coeducation in some countries, where it is helpful to compare and analyse both coeducation and segregated education and then to develop politic measures for equal education.
Methodology and process
1) Discern the actual status of sexism in coeducation systems in Asian countries and research measures to realize gender-equal coeducation
2) Share the results of the research and conduct regional workshops in order to exchange opinions regarding improvement measures
3) Implement the measures for gender-equal education revised and complemented during the workshops
2. Research for realizing gender equality in the educational process and development of its political measures
Background and purpose
The fact that female and male students select and complete different subjects in the secondary education level is closely related with their job or career after graduation. The contents of education in the textbooks used in each level likewise influence the students' career and the idea of gender equality. In Korea, students do not yet have a right to select subjects in the secondary education level, but they will be starting 2003.
So, it is necessary to investigate and analyse the actual state of selecting school subjects of boy and girl students in each country and the gender discriminating contents of textbooks and to develop policy or politic measures to be employed in each country in order to solve such problems.
Methodology and process
1) Investigate and analyse the actual status of the educational process in the secondary education level and sexism in textbooks used in each country
2) Evaluate policies of the government for securing gender equality in the education process and develop political measures
3) Conduct regional workshops for sharing information and to exchange opinions regarding improvement measures
4) Encourage each government of Asia to execute political measures and implementation plans shared during the workshops
3. Model activities in no additional vocational education for secondary schoolgirls
Background and Purpose
Each country may exhibit slightly different results, but separation of sexes according to the kind of job can still be noticeable in the labor market. One measure to resolve this kind of problem is to activate vocational education in the secondary education level for the fields where women do not play an active role. Various jobs related to a new technology including IT spring up in each country after the economy is changed into knowledge-based economy, but women do not actively participate in these jobs, either.
Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a model education in order to encourage fenx-ile participation in the vocational education fields which are traditionally recognized as men's and to share the results with other countries.
Methodology and Process
1)Select non-traditional vocational education fields in order to conduct exemplary education in each country and submit the selection ground and the exemplary schedule
2)Choose 3-4 countries per each non-traditional vocational education field and supply the chosen countries with the necessary equipment, operation cost, etc. through UNESCO and others
3)Countries participating in the exemplary education shall report results in Regional workshops, as well as publish it on the Internet including on the home page of UNESCO, so that other countries may refer to it.