| Elementary, middle and high school students from North Chungcheong Province pose in front of San Francisco City Hall in January 2015. They participated in the Ban Ki-moon Global Leadership Overseas Training program Jan. 7-15. The North Chungcheong Province Office of Education has run the program since 2007 to promote global leadership education. / Courtesy of the North Chungcheong Province Office of Education |
North Chungcheong education office offers global leadership training
| Kim Byong-woo, superintendent of the North Chungcheong Province Office of Education |
Kim Byong-woo, superintendent of the North Chungcheong Province Office of Education, said he is strengthening cultural exchange programs for students to become global leaders.
"I think it is especially important for students to experience various cultures overseas," Kim told The Korea Times in a recent interview, citing the office's unique program called Ban Ki-moon Global Leadership Overseas Training.
Given that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is from Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, the education office began the program named after him in 2007 to give students opportunities to meet with Ban in the United States and be inspired by him.
"We select about 30 students every year through a competitive three-stage selection process and send them to the U.S. for eight days," said Jeon Yeon-hwa, senior supervisor of the office's career and character education division.
She said sixth graders in elementary schools, middle school seniors and high school juniors can apply for the program. Applicants go through a personal statement screening, Korean and English essay tests, an interview and training camp that lasts over three months.
"The reason why we choose students through a highly selective process is because they need to possess good character and teamwork as well as English proficiency to become world leaders," Kim said.
His office allocated 300 million won for the global leadership program.
"More than 1,000 students applied for the program last year because of its high quality," said Kwon Oh-jang, supervisor of the same division.
In addition to meeting with Ban, the selected students work on their own projects during their visit to the U.S.
"I remember a team that investigated a possible link among Americans between social status and obesity," Kim said. "I heard that they went out on the streets to interview people randomly to figure out if there was a correlation between the two."
Kim expressed satisfaction with their activity. "This is what I believe global leadership education should be," he said.
He said he will change some parts of the program, as Ban finishes his second term at the end of this year.
Kim has strived to form cooperative ties with educational institutions abroad to enrich cultural exchange programs.
"I went to Australia a few days ago to take a close look at environmental education there and find ways of boosting cooperation in this field between Australia and Korea," Kim said.
During his visit to Australia, he signed a memorandum of understanding with South Australia's Education Minister Susan Close to begin a student exchange program.
"I was happy that South Australia took an enthusiastic attitude to promote a cultural exchange with us," Kim said, adding that Australia is not the only country that showed an interest in developing relations with his education office.
Kim noted that Academie de Creteil, an education office in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, also wanted strongly to interact with North Chungcheong Province.
"We signed an MOU with the French education office in January to exchange students, teachers and staff," Kim said.
Integrating foreign language and culture education
Kim has a big plan to establish an institute of international education by combining the Chungchungbuk-do Foreign Language Institute for Students, five English centers in North Chungcheong Province and a multicultural education support center that was established in 2009.
"I hope I can realize the plan by the first half of 2018 at the latest," Kim said.
He wants the institute to take charge of all cultural exchange programs.
Kim also stressed that foreign language education should shift away from too much focus on English learning.
"I will encourage students to learn other languages including Chinese and Vietnamese," Kim said.
The education office plans to expand the role of the multicultural education support center, as the number of biracial students in elementary, middle and high schools in the province is on the rise.
According to the office, the number stood at 3,389 in April, up 13 percent from a year before.
"We will offer a better education for students from multicultural families so that they can learn more about their mothers' countries and feel pride in them," Kim said.