The Korean language is now adopted in the advanced level curriculum as a foreign language and will be introduced for university entrance examinations by 2023 in Sri Lanka, said the National Institute of Education led by the Director General of NIE, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne.
“This is a remarkable achievement and I hope there will be more student exchanges in the future. Korea is a country that turned its challenges into opportunities and there are many lessons that Sri Lanka can learn from Korea.’ He also thanked ‘the Korean Envoy and the Korean Embassy, the capacity-building training programme for teachers was completed with great success.
Korean Ambassador Santhush Woonjin JEONG delivering a presentation on the path of Economic Development in the Republic of Korea at the NIE in Maharagama said that the Korean Embassy has closely worked with NIE to achieve exceptional milestones in education cooperation such as the introduction of the Korean language to an advanced level curriculum, Korean language speech contests, voluntary donation of examination papers and many more.
“Presently around 25,000 migrant workers live in Korea. I believe learning the Korean language will strongly assist employability in Korea.”
In his special presentation, Ambassador Santhush highlighted the economic development of Korea by sharing the statistics of Korea’s economy today, the history of Korea’s economic development, key drivers of economic development and future growth engines and public policy. According to 2020 statistics, Korea ranks as the tenth highest economy in terms of GDP at USD 1,630.87 billion. Korea’s economic rise solidified as it entered the countries with a population of over 50 million and a GNI per capita of more than USD 30,000 in 2018. In 2021, among the five most innovative economies, Korea, Singapore and Switzerland lead the index in the first place.
Ambassador Santhush also outlined Korea’s future growth engines that will propel its development forward. “I am also happy to note that Korea ranks second among OECD nations in R&D spending as a portion of GDP. Korea focuses on scientific research; the Korean government promotes innovations in numerous fields. Environment Safety Governance is the future growth engine and way forward for the Korean economy.”
While outlining the history of economic development, the Korean envoy further stated, “I would not say that all other developing countries should replicate the exact same path to development as Korea did.” He recalled that Korea was one of the poorest countries in the past and today Korea has become a developed country with the help of the international community. “Korea is not perfect but its path to development could become an example that other countries could refer to.”
