Two ATP participants share their expectations of the Study visit

18 April 2011

Two ATP participants (from Uganda and from Afghanistan) kindly agreed to give their expectations before their departure to Korea.

Q1: How much do you currently know about the Korean education system and what would you like to learn about in particular?

Ugandan trainee: At the moment, I really do not know much about the Korean education system other than that it consists of a four-tier system of 6-3-3-4*. And also that there is a centralized education administration from the elementary to the high school level, and that private schools/institutions coexist alongside public ones.

Afghan trainee: I only know the general structure and organization of the Korean education system. I would like to get some more in-depth information about this system in general and especially as regards the organization and management of higher education, what policies have been recently adopted for teachers and teacher education, and also the role and use of ICT in education in Korea.

Q2: What are your expectations for this visit?

Uganda: I expect to learn much more about their education system overall, I mean in terms of education policy, management, internal efficiency, curriculum effectiveness, as well as financing.

Afghanistan: Basically, I would like to know the overall organization of the education system and the link between different education levels and types. In particular, I want to learn more about educational planning activities and interventions in the system, and the development of activities of the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI).

Q3: Why do you think such a visit is important for educational planners?

Uganda: For education planners such visits are important because they offer an opportunity to learn about other education systems and how things relate to your own system, which allows you to copy good practices, while of course taking into account contextual aspects.

Afghanistan: Understanding and putting together the experience of other countries, especially good practices in the various aspects of education in a particular country directly or indirectly helps to enhance the capacity of planners. So, this study visit is very valuable because it will allow us to learn about education practices in Korea in general and educational planning in particular.

* Four-tier system of 6-3-3-4 means 6 years of primary education, 3 years of junior-secondary education, 3 years of senior secondary education and 4 years of tertiary education.