The conservative Lee Myung-bak administration will revise what it called left-leaning history and social studies textbooks. The revised texts, six history books for high school students and 15 social studies and economics books, will be used in classrooms starting 2009.
Minister of Education, Science and Technology Kim Do-yeon on Wednesday said the government will reflect suggestions from the business and other civic groups to put more "pride'' in being Korean.
"We have a very proud history and I do not think the current textbooks bring that image to students. I think they are a bit left-leaning,'' he said.
Kim's comments came as the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Liberty Union and several other conservative groups called for the revision of the text books, which underwent revision under the liberal administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.
Their requests started in the early 2000s, but were barely reciprocated until the new administration was launched in February. Since the FKI was unable to get their own business-friendly economy books taught in classrooms due to public antipathy last year, their requests got stronger.
However, many people opposed the planned revision. The Democratic Labor Party said Thursday that the Lee administration seems to focus on doing "exactly the opposite of the former Roh government,'' and is trying to "scrap history'' according to their whims.
According to the ministry, the business community expressed discomfort toward several passages allegedly negatively indicating globalization or market opening. KCCI, which has pointed out 337 anti-capitalism or anti-business passages from 60 textbooks, said that much of the contents are wrongly portrayed.
Sections of the texts, which said, "Too much liberty in economic activities enlarges the gap between the rich and the poor,'' and "planned economy is overall superior to market economy; the more free trade we have the poorer we might be,'' were selected as inappropriate and misleading contents. The government has allegedly agreed to correct about half of the proposals.
Shin Sun-ho of the ministry, said correctional requests were also made about the collaboration and peace mood between the two Koreas in the 90s and early 2000s, Japanese colonial rule's influence on Korea and others.
He said about 300 corrections were made for this year's textbooks and anyone can request such correction through the ministry Web site.
Internet users are also resisting. About 500 netizens have signed an online petition to keep the textbook from the conservative and mercantilistic capitalism changes.
Some even said the textbook has not reflected the human rights violations perpetrated during the military junta era in the 1960s and 70s.
Shin admitted that textbooks reflect political or economic ideology of the time. "The basic outline of the textbooks was set in the mid-1990s, when the non-military government kicked off and criticism toward authoritarianism or economic development-only ideology emerged. Now we have a new government valuing pragmatism, market economy and alliance, the tone of these textbooks may change,'' he said.
Minister of Education, Science and Technology Kim Do-yeon on Wednesday said the government will reflect suggestions from the business and other civic groups to put more "pride'' in being Korean.
"We have a very proud history and I do not think the current textbooks bring that image to students. I think they are a bit left-leaning,'' he said.
Kim's comments came as the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Liberty Union and several other conservative groups called for the revision of the text books, which underwent revision under the liberal administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.
Their requests started in the early 2000s, but were barely reciprocated until the new administration was launched in February. Since the FKI was unable to get their own business-friendly economy books taught in classrooms due to public antipathy last year, their requests got stronger.
However, many people opposed the planned revision. The Democratic Labor Party said Thursday that the Lee administration seems to focus on doing "exactly the opposite of the former Roh government,'' and is trying to "scrap history'' according to their whims.
According to the ministry, the business community expressed discomfort toward several passages allegedly negatively indicating globalization or market opening. KCCI, which has pointed out 337 anti-capitalism or anti-business passages from 60 textbooks, said that much of the contents are wrongly portrayed.
Sections of the texts, which said, "Too much liberty in economic activities enlarges the gap between the rich and the poor,'' and "planned economy is overall superior to market economy; the more free trade we have the poorer we might be,'' were selected as inappropriate and misleading contents. The government has allegedly agreed to correct about half of the proposals.
Shin Sun-ho of the ministry, said correctional requests were also made about the collaboration and peace mood between the two Koreas in the 90s and early 2000s, Japanese colonial rule's influence on Korea and others.
He said about 300 corrections were made for this year's textbooks and anyone can request such correction through the ministry Web site.
Internet users are also resisting. About 500 netizens have signed an online petition to keep the textbook from the conservative and mercantilistic capitalism changes.
Some even said the textbook has not reflected the human rights violations perpetrated during the military junta era in the 1960s and 70s.
Shin admitted that textbooks reflect political or economic ideology of the time. "The basic outline of the textbooks was set in the mid-1990s, when the non-military government kicked off and criticism toward authoritarianism or economic development-only ideology emerged. Now we have a new government valuing pragmatism, market economy and alliance, the tone of these textbooks may change,'' he said.
[ Source: The Korea Times ]
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