REVISED SCHOOL CURRICULUM PLAN APPROVED

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The National Education Commission voted on the education ministry's 2022 revised curriculum plan Wednesday, which includes the term "free democracy" in the high school Korean history curriculum and deletes vague usage of terms such as "gender equality" and "gender minority". During the meeting which continued on late at night, some commission members left the site without voting in protest of the decision.

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The National Education Committee voted on the 2022 revised curriculum plan after a four-hour meeting. The plan was presented by the education ministry on December 6th. Including the term "free democracy" in the high school Korean history curriculum is an exmaple of the education ministry's plan that has largely been maintained. From now on, the vague usage of "gender equality" will be deleted and replaced by more descriptive expressions like "prejudice on gender" and "ethical issues on gender discrimination". The term "gender minority" or LGBTQ will be changed to "minority who are discriminated for their gender". However, the word "sexuality" will be removed from health education while "gender self-determination right" will be given a clearer definition. Sixteen members of the National Education Committee voted on these changes. Twelve voted for the revision while three opposed and one withdrew. However, three members who opposed using the words 'free' and 'democracy' together opted to not take part in the vote and left the meeting.

[Soundbite] Jang Seok-woong(Non-standing member, Nat'l Education Commission) : "The parts about free democracy, sexual minority and gender equality were problematic. Those two issues were added later by the education ministry."

In fact, every time the curricula were subject to change, whether to use the words 'free' and 'democracy' together has been debated. The debate is likely to continue as the researchers who took part in the revision of the history curriculum revealed that the Ministry of Education had pressured them several times during the revision process. The education ministry will confirm and notify the revision plan approved by the National Education Committee by the end of this year. The revised curricula will be applied in stages in elementary, middle and high school textbooks from 2024.