Seoul International School is hosting National History Day Korea 2024 on Saturday, where 572 students from 27 schools will present 325 projects. Under the theme “Turning Points in History,” the event encourages students to engage deeply with historical events that had a great impact on the world today. National History Day aims to offer a dynamic educational program that promotes critical thinking, research skills and the creative presentation of various historical events. By partici

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2024

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family faces dissolution as President Yoon Suk Yeol has decided to leave the position of minister of gender equality vacant, in an apparent drive to disband the ministry, one of his key election pledges. "President Yoon believes it is necessary to express his firm intention to fulfill the pledge at the administrative level, even if a legal revision has yet to be made," a senior presidential official said Thursday. Currently, two amendments to the Gov

Politics Feb. 22, 2024

Thousands of trainee doctors submitted their letters of collective resignation in protest against the government's plan to boost the number of medical students on Tuesday, aggravating fears of a major void in public health. As of Monday at 11 p.m., 6,415 trainee doctors at 100 teaching hospitals had handed in their resignation letters, with about 1,630 of them walking out of the hospital, according to the Health Ministry on Tuesday. The rate of junior doctors resigning is over 55 percent, a

Social Affairs Feb. 20, 2024

Some 40 medical universities have called for governments to retract their original decision to add 2,000 seats to the country's medical school enrollment quota next year from the current 3,058, claiming that "the plan is impossible to accommodate considering the conditions of current education in a short period." The Korean Association of Medical Colleges (KAMC), on behalf of the deans of 40 medical schools and medical specialty schools nationwide, released such a statement on Mon

Social Affairs Feb. 19, 2024

Four-year universities in South Korea are gearing up to raise tuition fees, going away from the so-called "half-price" tuition policy that encouraged them to freeze the price since 2012. Out of 137 universities that have set the amount of their tuition fees, 19 have decided to raise the expenditure. Keimyung University raised its tuition fee for the first time in 16 years, while Chosun University and Dong-Eui University raised them for the first time in 15 and 13 years, respectively.

Social Affairs Feb. 19, 2024

Gangwon Province is making moves to implement a four-day workweek, as Governor Kim Jin-tae aims to prepare relevant policy alternatives. "The recently discussed four-day workweek will be a significant opportunity for the state," said Kim at the plenary session of the Gangwon State Council last Wednesday. "With a four-day workweek in the future, the state will garner the attention and interest of the entire nation," Kim added. Major companies such as Samsung Electronics, Posco

Social Affairs Feb. 19, 2024

진행자: 최정윤, Elise Youn Korea sees surge in number of asylum seekers from Russia 기사 요약: 지난해 5천 7백 여명의 러시아인이 한국 정부에 난민 신청, 2022년 비해 5배 늘어난 이유는? [1] South Korea saw a significant rise in the number of Russian asylum seekers last year, with over 5,000 submitting refugee applications, a government report found Monday. *asylum: 망명 [2] According to the latest monthly report by the Korea Immigration Service under the Ministry of Justice, the number of Russian nationals who sought refugee status in Kore

Podcast Feb. 19, 2024

The Health Ministry ordered 221 hospitals on Friday to ban mass leave of junior doctors and to maintain essential medical personnel, in response to a nationwide movement of collective action among doctors in protest of the government's recent decision to increase the medical school enrollment quota. The government's decision comes after trainee doctors from five major general hospitals in Seoul threatened to walk off the job at 6 a.m. on Tuesday next week, in an apparent show of protes

Social Affairs Feb. 16, 2024

Amid a sharp decline in the school-age population due to a rapidly dropping birth rate, 1 out of 6 elementary schools in Seoul will have fewer than 40 students per grade level, government research suggested Thursday. The number of "small-scale schools" that have fewer than 240 students will increase by 101 in 2028, an almost 50 percent increase from this year with 69 schools, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's prediction on arrangements of schools from 2024

Social Affairs Feb. 15, 2024

진행자: 최정윤, Elise Youn Why ramyeon makers still stick with 'ramen' marketing 기사 요약: 라면과 라멘의 분명한 차이에도 한국 라면 회사들이 해외 출시시 ‘라멘’을 고집하는 이유는? [1] Amid soaring exports of Korean instant noodles in recent years, a renewed spotlight has been cast on a decadeslong dilemma among local food companies -- whether or not the word "ramen" should be ditched from their marketing strategy. *cast light on: 새로운 정보를 주다, 보여주다 *ditch: 버리다/ 배수로 [2] Ramen, rooted in Japanese culinary traditi

Podcast Feb. 15, 2024

Teenagers in South Korea are becoming less keen to get married, while more than half believe that having children out of wedlock is acceptable, a study suggested Wednesday. According to the National Youth Policy Institute's recent research on teenagers' values conducted among some 7,718 students from elementary school to high school last year, 29.5 percent agreed that "marriage is a must." This is less than half the percentage 11 years ago, compared to 2012, when 73.2 percent

Social Affairs Feb. 14, 2024

More than 4 out of 10 young adults in South Korea have been unable to go to the hospital when they were sick because they were too busy or did not have enough money, a recent study showed. A report on young adult poverty and self-reliance released by the National Youth Policy Institute on Tuesday found that 41.6 percent of 4,000 young adults aged 19 to 34 said they had been unable to go to the hospital when they should have in the past year. The most common reason for not being able to go see th

Social Affairs Feb. 13, 2024

South Korea saw a significant rise in the number of Russian asylum seekers last year, with over 5,000 submitting refugee applications, a government report found Monday. According to the latest monthly report by the Korea Immigration Service under the Ministry of Justice, the number of Russian nationals who sought refugee status in Korea last year stood at 5,750, a five-fold increase from the number of asylum applications by Russian nationals in 2022, which stood at 1,038. The number is also almo

Social Affairs Feb. 12, 2024

As South Korea continues to struggle with a remarkably low birth rate, the number of school-age children is estimated to fall below the 5 million mark in just two years. According to the latest data released by the Korea Educational Development Institute on Monday, the number of elementary, middle and high school students nationwide is expected to fall from some 5.13 million this year to about 4.83 million in 2026. In 2029, the number of students is expected to further decline to 4.275 million,

Social Affairs Feb. 12, 2024

An online post uploaded by an international marriage agency on the guidelines of "bride education" stirred up fierce debate on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday for containing potentially sexist and degrading remarks about Vietnamese women living in Korea through arranged international marriages. The post under the title "We offer dormitory education," listed seven topics the agency conducts classes on for Vietnamese brides-to-be, such as "do not lie," "avo

Social Affairs Jan. 30, 2024