The government Tuesday announceed the plan for reintroducing state-authored history textbooks for secondary school students, prompting the opposition party to vow to boycott a parliamentary session in protest.
  

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea made the announcement on the revision of the publication system for history textbooks for middle and high schoolers starting in the 2017 school year.
  

The announcement comes after the Education Ministry collected public opinion for the past 20 days. The law stipulates that the government give such notice in advance on policy changes.
  

History textbooks for secondary schools are currently published by eight private publishing companies pending government approval while primary schools have a single set of state-authored history textbooks.
  

Moon Jae-in, head of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, criticized the government's move, saying that it is reminiscent of the dictatorship.
  

The party warned that it has no choice but to boycott the National Assembly's session. (Yonhap)