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The government is promoting a plan to reorganize the school system by lowering the elementary school entrance age by one year from the current 6 to 5 in order to address the low birthrate and aging population and the educational gap in the early childhood stage.



If social consensus is reached, the plan is to implement early admission from 2025 at the earliest.



If this happens, some of the children who are currently born in 2019 will enter elementary school a year earlier than originally planned.



On the 29th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Park Soon-ae reported the new government work plan to President Yoon Seok-yeol.



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According to the current Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the elementary school entrance age is stipulated that 'one must enter elementary school on March 1 of the year following the year in which the child turns 6 years old'.



In other words, they will be enrolled in March of the year after they turn 6 years old, the year they turn 8 in Korean age, and this will be lowered by one year.



The Ministry of Education plans to implement early admission by one year from 2025 if social consensus is reached.



The current 6-3-3-4 system (6th grade in elementary school, 3rd in middle school, 3rd in high school, and 4th grade in university) will be maintained.



At the beginning of the implementation, there are limitations such as teacher supply and demand or school space, so a plan to increase the admission year by 25% for 4 years is likely.



For example, if the school system is reorganized from 2025, children entering elementary school in 2025 will be born from January 2018 to March 2019, from April 2019 to June 2020 in 2026, and July 2020 in 2027. This means that those born in September 2021 and those born in October 2021 to December 2022 will enter school in 2028.



By advancing the school age by one year, the government plans to expand the target of responsibility at the infant and toddler stage and close the educational gap on the starting line, and, as a result, also advance the graduation date by one year to lower the age of entry into society. is that



At the end of this year, the Ministry of Education is planning to start a public survey on the reorganization of the school system, come up with a proposal for the reorganization of the school system in 2023, confirm it in 2024, conduct a pilot test in some regions, and then carry it out nationwide in 2025.



(Photo = Yonhap News)