Lee calls for improvement in S. Korean education system

SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has often praised South Korea's education system, but that does not mean that the system is perfect, President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday, calling for improving the quality of public education.
When Obama visited Seoul in 2009, Lee talked to him about the education zeal of South Korean parents, saying it served as one of the main driving forces behind the country's rapid economic development from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Since then, Obama has often praised South Korea's education system, urging Americans to look to South Korea in adopting longer school days and after-school programs to help American children compete globally, while he has lamented a high school dropout rate in the U.S. that has tripled in the past 30 years.
"The education aspects that I talked to President Obama about were bragging about the past. They were not about today's education," Lee said during a meeting with members of a presidential advisory commission on education, according to presidential spokesman Park Jeong-ha.
"There are some points that need improvement in South Korean education," he said.
The advisory panel put forward a series of suggestions during the meeting, including making it mandatory for parents to hold talks with teachers on a regular basis and sharply expanding the hiring of retired people in the science and engineering sectors as college professors.
Lee asked officials to make efforts to realize such suggestions so that he "won't be ashamed when I talk to President Obama in the future" about education.


jschang@yna.co.kr