The Education Ministry said Thursday it would introduce a “test-free semester” in all middle schools to ease the burden of school tests and motivate young students to focusing on career planning.

As the first step, the ministry will pick 37 middle schools this year to allow students to spend a semester without tests and assessment. It aims to fully expand the test-free curriculum to all middle schools in the country in 2016.

In a policy briefing to President Park Geun-hye, the ministry said it would hire more teachers specializing in career consulting and allocate them to all middle and high schools by 2014.

The government will also develop a national competency standards system to evaluate workers to help lessen the influence of educational background on employment and career.

“In order to turn the (current) education system into one more innovative and creative, it is important to create a competency evaluation system,” Park said during a joint policy briefing by the education and culture ministries Thursday.

The competency standards model is a system in which a person receives a credit or certification for demonstrating a certain level of performance in particular jobs.

For this, the government will establish a national committee by the end of April to design and operate the National Competency Standards model, according to the ministry.

The president has also expressed determination to curb private education costs that have contributed significantly to the nation’s heavy household debt.

Park reiterated her plans to introduce a new ban on primary and secondary schools from writing exam questions that require students to study ahead of their educational level. For this, the ministry is seeking to legislate a special law and regulations on public education this year.

The ministry said it would also provide “all-day” care service at elementary schools nationwide by expanding after-school classes until 10 p.m.

Other plans for curbing education costs included simplifying the college admission process and providing free and compulsory education from elementary to high school level; presently, government-paid education covers elementary school to middle school.

“Bringing radical changes in college-entrance process will cause more harm than good. But if we push ahead with a few vital policy plans, it will help solve the private education problem,” Park added.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)