President Park Geun-hye vowed Wednesday to join international efforts to make a better place through education, noting it is a key to meeting challenges facing the world.
“South Korea will become an active partner” to international efforts, Park said in a video message to the Seoul forum on global human resources. Participants included former Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Park did not give further details.
In September, Park announced at the U.N. that South Korea will donate US$200 million in aid to 15 poor countries under the “Better Life for Girls” initiative over the next five years.
The 15 countries are Nepal, Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Tanzania, Jordan, Morocco, Bolivia and Ecuador.
The initiative aims to tackle gender inequality in education and help girls in developing countries unlock their full potential. It also calls for strengthening health services for girls in those countries.
“I believe that the strong power to overcome challenges facing mankind and to blaze new trails for prosperity for co-existence comes from education,” Park said at the forum.
South Koreans’ education fervor helped transform the country into Asia’s fourth-largest economy from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Still, critics say South Korea’s education system relies on simple memorization and rote learning, and lacks critical thinking. (Yonhap)
