Education in Korea takes place in (pre-compulsory) kindergartens (for 3- to 6-year-olds), compulsory elementary schools (primary schools) (children aged 6-12 years) and junior high schools (12-15 years), high schools (upper secondary) (15-18 years), colleges, universities, teacher colleges, the Air and Correspondence University, open universities, trade schools and trade high schools, civic schools and civic high schools, special schools, miscellaneous schools and junior colleges (offering upper secondary technical and vocational courses).45 The diagram below identifies the main types of educational establishment in existence and the phases of education.
As is apparent from the diagram, a linear school system of the 6-3-3-4 type (six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three of high school and four of college or higher education) was first adopted by the Education Law of 19499 and remains in use.45
The Education Principle Law1 stipulates that everyone has the right, as well as the duty, to be educated as a citizen. Every Korean has a right to nine years of education, comprising six years of compulsory elementary school education and three years of lower secondary schooling in junior high school. Article13 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Law2 stipulates that all parents are obliged to provide education for their child(ren) during this period.44
Elementary school and junior high school/middle school (lower secondary) education is free (government-funded) and compulsory throughout the country.45
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Year/ gra-de key |
Typ-ical age | |||||||||
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Higher educ-
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24+ | ||||||||
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Graduate school |
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23-24 | |||||||||
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22- 23 | |||||||||||
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Coll-eges and univer-sities |
Indu-strial unive-rsity |
Colle-ges of educ-ation/ teac- |
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Air |
Tech-nical coll-ege/ |
Mis-cell-ane-ous scho-ol |
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21-22 | |||
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20-21 | |||||||||
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Juni- |
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19-20 | ||||||||||
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18-19 | |||||||||||
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Seco- |
Senior high school* |
Spe-cial sch-ools |
12 |
17-18 | ||||||||
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11 |
16-17 | |||||||||||
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10 |
15-16 | |||||||||||
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Junior high school/Middle school |
9 |
14-15 | ||||||||||
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8 |
13-14 | |||||||||||
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7 |
12-13 | |||||||||||
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Eleme-ntary educ-ation |
Elementary school |
6 |
11-12 | |||||||||
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5 |
10-11 | |||||||||||
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4 |
9- | |||||||||||
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3 |
8-9 | |||||||||||
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2 |
7-8 | |||||||||||
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1 |
6-7 | |||||||||||
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Pre-school educ-ation |
Kindergarten |
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5-6 | ||||||||
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4-5 | ||||||||||||
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3-4 | ||||||||||||
Bold = compulsory education
* High schools are classified into various types e.g., general academic; vocational; technical; agricultural; commercial; fishing and oceanography; and specialist high schools (specialising in, for example, foreign languages, arts/art and music, science, sport).