hankyoreh

By Kim Min-kyoung

On Tuesday the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) has issued an order to increase time spent on physical education at middle schools. Starting from the coming new term, physical education will increase from two to three hours to four hours by increasing time spent at school sports clubs

　Municipal and provincial offices of education, as well as schools, have been taken aback by the directive. The change means a reworking of this year‘s PE curriculum, which was decided upon last year. With just over a fortnight to go before the new term begins, it will be difficult to find PE teachers to take the classes on short notice.

Currently, first and second grade middle school students have three hours of PE lessons each week, while third graders have two hours. The ministry has ordered that schools increase the time spent at school sports clubs by first and second graders by one hour, and third graders by two hours. This will mean a decrease in time spent on classes in other subjects or school societies. Teachers of other subjects, honorary sports teachers or volunteer student sports teachers lead sports clubs will fill the gap in sports teachers. To this end, MEST is due to provide a budget of 61.9 billion won (about $55 million) for sports instruction personnel and operating costs.

Municipal and provincial offices of education are concerned that class quality will fall if schools increase PE hours without preparation. “Changing again the curriculum that was set in August of last year with around a fortnight left until the new term in March could stop school curricula from operating properly,” said an official at one office of education. “Schools should be given time to prepare, but they feel burdened by the way this is being pushed hard by MEST, together with [the issue of] school violence.” One middle school PE teacher in Seoul said, “Increasing the number of PE classes means a need for more teachers, accordingly, but class quality will fall as it is hard to judge in a short time whether teachers are qualified.”

In response, an MEST official said, “From 2013, we will stabilize [the situation] by announcing a new curriculum. There is a lack of time, but we will decrease problems by way of agreements with municipal and provincial offices of education.”
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