As the National Education Commission reviews longer class hours for first and second graders as a form of child care policy, critics warned the move could add to the burden on teachers and students alike.
The commission held a policy forum on expanding instructional time and improving education quality for lower elementary grades on the 3rd at the National Assembly Library in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, together with the National Assembly Futures Institute and the Korean Educational Development Institute.
Hwang In-hyuk and Sung Mun-joo, associate research fellows at the National Assembly Futures Institute, proposed in a presentation on the policy case for expanding elementary school instructional hours that class time for first and second graders should be raised in phases to the average level of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
They noted that annual instructional time at Korean elementary schools is 190 hours below the OECD average of 845 hours, and shorter than in Japan (768 hours) and Germany (774 hours), both members of the Group of Seven. They also argued that parents taking parental leave when their children enter elementary school is not enough to cover care gaps, and cited the considerable private tutoring costs already incurred for first and second graders as grounds for expanding class hours. Psychiatric treatment among children aged 5 to 9 is rising sharply, they said, and participation in private tutoring can worsen children's mental health.
"Private responses alone cannot resolve care gaps at the start of school in a universal and safe way, and the role of public responses is important," they said. "The lower elementary grades are when a child's physical, psychological and social living space expands from the home to the school, so support for adapting to school life as a whole is needed." Lee Hee-hyun, head of the student and parent research office at the Korean Educational Development Institute, also said the current short hours of public education for lower grades need to be reconsidered. "Expanding class hours for lower grades requires staffing that does not increase the burden on teachers, and separating responsibility for after-school and child care programs from regular instruction," Lee said.
Opponents countered that longer class hours for first and second graders do not match children's developmental stage, and that care gaps should be addressed through other policies.
Kim Sun, vice president of the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, said the most common response from lower-grade teachers in the field was that first graders already struggle with a fifth period. "First grade is a distinctive stage in which children are still developing the ability to sustain attention, regulate emotions and resolve conflicts with peers," Kim said. "The government has already committed substantial policy capacity and budget to full-day school and after-school programs, and community care systems exist outside schools as well. Before lengthening class hours, the proper order is to check whether the existing system works and first address problems of program quality, specialized staff, regional disparities and accessibility."
Cho Jang-woo, organizing committee chair of the National Parents' Association for the Realization of Equal Education, said that class hours falling below the OECD average does not mean Korean students in the lower elementary grades study less overall. "The OECD also points out that Korean students spend a considerable amount of additional time studying outside school," Cho said. "If more time at school is needed because of care gaps, other educational alternatives besides expanding instructional hours could be found. It is questionable whether expanding class hours is an educationally appropriate policy for closing care gaps, and whether more class time would really reduce private tutoring."
Meanwhile, the Teachers' Union Federation issued a statement the same day urging authorities to immediately stop what it called a ploy to offload care gaps onto expanded instructional time, as resistance to the policy grows among teachers' groups.
