New plan includes second multicultural education center, expanded Korean-language preparatory schools and AI translation services Seoul's education office plans to open a second multicultural education support center and expand Korean-language preparatory schools as the number of migrant-background students attending schools in the city rises past 22,000.
Details of the expansion were included in a policy road map for Seoul Education Superintendent Jung Geun-sik’s second term, released Monday by his campaign pledge implementation committee.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it would review the proposal’s feasibility and funding requirements before finalizing its implementation.
The number of migrant-background students in Seoul has risen 13.6 percent in the five years leading up to April 2025, according to education office data. The term broadly refers to students where they or their parents hold, or previously held, foreign nationality.
At the center of the plan is the establishment of a second Seoul Multicultural Education Support Center.
The center will occupy the third and fourth floors of a kindergarten building at Seoul Changsin Elementary School in Jongno-gu and offer counseling, teacher training, educational programs and hands-on activities. It will also feature AI- and edtech-based learning facilities and multilingual support infrastructure.
The education office plans to complete the center’s design and construction in the second half of this year before formally opening it in February 2027. A regional support system centered on the facility is scheduled to begin operating the following month.
Another major component is an expansion of Seoul’s Korean-language preparatory school program for students who have recently arrived in Korea and foreign national students.
The preparatory schools provide intensive Korean-language education and programs designed to help students enter and adjust to the Korean public school system.
A policy study on the preparatory school system will be conducted in the second half of this year, followed by improvements to its operating model beginning in 2027.
The education office plans to diversify the program to include courses operated within schools, commissioned to universities or run in cooperation with local governments.
The number of Korean-language preparatory schools is set to increase from three in 2026 to four in 2028 and five in 2029.
Schools with high concentrations of migrant-background students will also receive additional support, including expanded Korean-language classes, smaller class sizes and additional multilingual instructors and multicultural coordinators.
Under the road map, schools would qualify for the additional support when migrant-background students account for at least 20 percent of enrollment from 2027, down from 30 percent in 2026.
The education office also plans to develop Korean-language textbooks and teaching materials tailored to regional needs.
An AI-based real-time interpretation and translation service will be piloted in the second half of this year to reduce language barriers between schools, students and their families. The service will be designed to recognize terminology and expressions specific to schools and education.
School adjustment programs and bilingual psychological counseling will also be expanded for students facing difficulties due to linguistic and cultural differences.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com