A visitor from South Korea’s Ministry of Education is on a tour studying local area schools in preparation for educational reform in his home country.

Senior Deputy Director Park Sung-ha has visited schools in the Wentzville and Wright City school districts over the last month, as well as Liberty Christian Academy in Wright City.

While visiting LCA during the week of Aug. 20, Park spoke to The Record about his mission in America.

“In Korea, we have been putting a lot of effort into reforming our education system to provide more specialized education to the students,” Park said through a translator. “Korea is going through changes such as (its) fourth industrial revolution. It has to be more flexible in adapting to changes around the world, too.”

To that end, the Korean Ministry of Education is studying ways to provide more specialized, adaptable education for students. The current Korean education system is very standardized, with students having all of their classes assigned to them, Park said.

He explained that a major part of reform will be about giving students more choice in which classes they take.

That’s why Park and other Ministry of Education officials are visiting U.S. schools, to learn about the more flexible education system and take the advantages back to Korea. They are specifically studying the high school credit system in hopes of implementing a similar system.

Two of Park’s early takeaways during his visit were how many options for classes students have based on their interests and career plans, and also the general atmosphere of the classes he had visited.

Students in Korea are evaluated relative to the performance of everyone else in their class, which Park said makes classes very competitive, or even cutthroat. The positive side of that atmosphere is a high achievement record among Korean students, but Park said there could be benefit to introducing more collaboration.

While observing classes here and talking with students, Park learned that there is more emphasis in the class on individual learning and the differences between each student.

“(The students) weren’t uncomfortable with those kind of differences among each other,” he commented. “They were more feeling that it helped them get used to their differences and learn from their differences in a collaborative atmosphere.”

That, he said, is a lesson he can take back to Korea.

There is still some time to go before any big changes are put into effect. Park said the Ministry of Education plans rollout a high school credit system in 2022.

Helping host the international visit was State Rep. Bryan Spencer. His Missouri House district includes Wright City and Wentzville. As a teacher and a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, Spencer was tapped as an ideal choice to conduct the visit.

Spencer said he tried to show schools of different sizes in both suburban and rural areas. He was happy to show what schools in the area have to offer.

“If you look at Wentzville, Wright City, and even Liberty Christian, we have some excellent school districts in our area,” Spencer commented.

Park Sung-ha, senior deputy director for South Korea's Ministry of Education, visited Liberty Christian Academy in Wright City the week of Aug. 20. With him are Missouri Rep. Bryan Spencer and LCA Assistant Administrator Sue Schloeman. Park and other officials are observing schools in America in preparation for educational reform in South Korean.