In Korea, the unification policies had changed since liberalization due to factors such as international changes and North-South relationships, entailing the change in the unification education at schools as well, such as anti-communism education, unification / national security education, and unification education, even causing titular changes. To promote the unification education, the Unification Education Support Act was legislated in 1999; especially, with the start of the era of reconciliation and cooperation after the North-South Summit conference, the scope of unification educations at schools was also extended, leading many schools and teachers to offer unification educations, while the Ministry of Education and Human Resource and the Ministry of Unification provided support for and invested effort in activating unification education in various ways. In the qualitative aspect, many books, dissertations and research reports were published about the unification education at schools, and with the efforts of numerous scholars, new approaches to unificationeducation were also attempted, introducing and researching the contents, methods, and cases of unification education. However, despite such efforts, the interest in unification education was only high at schools at the point of 2000, when the North-South Summit Conference was held; the problem of unification education at schools nowadaysis that that has not been much change after 2001, compared to that before the North-South Summit Conference.
According to a survey, the biggest concern of the students was found to be the college entrance test and their school grades (55.1%), while interest in unification and North Korea was only 0.2%. Taking this mental state of the students in to account, I believe that it is about time for us to level-headedly perceive, approach and research the prerequisites for vitalizing unification education.
I resorted to new aspects, views, and approaches in seeking and presenting new methods to promote the schools' unification education in preparation for the actual unification, avoiding the existing dissertations, information and methodologies. First, I determined the external and internal situation of the unification education at schools and found out the problems, and proposed the most important issue the subjective aspects of the issue (principle of the school, teachers, and students), the contents and methodologies of the schools' unification education, based on a nation wide survey with the students and teachers as the subjects. Also, I extracted and proposed the systematic and environmental problems as part of the external issues. I divided measures to vitalize the unificationeducation at schools into internal and external ones; first, I sought methods related to the school's principals, teachers and students in the aspect of the subjective side, the most important internal issue, and proposed methodological measures and contents of unificationeducation. As for external measures, I classified them into systematic and environmental ones; in the systematic aspect, I suggested systematic measures to support schools, and especially the modification and supplementation of unification education support act, legislation of a school unification education charter and a special act regarding the exchangesamong North and South Korean students, as well as an unification education act for the integration of the North-South education. Moreover, I proposed detailed methods how to practice the unification education for its promotion, and mentioned tasks to be solved to prepare for the actual unification. The tasks include the North Korea Refugee Teacher Certification/ student issue, education about the human rights issue in North Korea, review of the unification education's goals, proposition of tasks regarding the fostering of teachers in preparation for the unification, and other issues that require constant attention and resolution, such as the changes in the notion of school owner/operators, induction of the teachers' unification discussion notion, and discussion about the promotion of the promotion of the students' will for unification.
In addition, as for issues that should not be neglected in practicing the unification education in the future, include the fact that students (non-pilot school student, students living in the Seoul metropolitan area, private school students, female students, and industrial students) are reluctant and passive regarding their interest in and yearning for the unification, as proved in a nation wide survey for students and teachers according to certain classification standards (sex, Seoul metropolitan area, city, district, county, other regions, liberal art students, industrial students, public/private school students, pilot school/non pilot school students). The result also showed that teachers in their 20s, female teachers, those who teach in non-pilot schools, industrial school teachers, Seoul/metropolitan area school teachers, and private school teachers were found to be rather passive and reluctant in activities regarding unification. Especially, it was found that the teachers' low interest and passion regarding the unification education, the necessity of it, or the actual situation in North Korea were transferred to the students. This proves that the notion and activities of the school principal and teachers determine the educational effect of the unification education in the students.
Another thing I had done for the research was to determine the interrelation between the survey results of the students and teachers. The students' interest and passion in unification was found to be proportionate to the principal and the educational institute'sinterest/passion/ guidance in and support for the unification education. This proves that with more interest in unification and unification education, the students tend to know more about the actual situationin North Korea, and with good unification education, the students develop more interest in unification.
There have been many researches and reports regarding the unificationeducation at schools, but it can be said that the schools and related institutes have not shown much passion and volition in actual practice. Therefore, I proposed my opinions regarding test problems in the college entrance exam, installation of a unification specialist organization, certifications for North Korean Refugee teachers, specialist teachers, and expansion of unification education pilot schools, for the promotion of unification education at schools.
Consequently, for the promotion of unification education at schools in preparation for the actual unification, there is a most urgent need for the will of the principals and teachers, in addition to the active administrative and financial support of the government; this would enable the least necessary degree of unification education. As aforementioned, we must clearly perceive the fact that the students' notion of and interest in unification depends on that of the teachers. The effect of school unification education is created by the roles of the principals and teachers; therefore, fundamental problems of the principals and teachers must be solved first, and then that of the students. Unless this can be done, the result will remain unproductive.
Since the external problems in school unification education are as important as the internal effects, solutions for this issue must also be sought. The most important priority is to solve the North Korean Nuclear Weapon issue. And, we must minimize the aftereffects of unification that may arise, referring to the cases of Germany. The only way to foster unification abilities in our students, who will lead our future, is to promote the unification education at schools. For this to be done, the government, school principals and teachers must all endeavor to resolve the problem.
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