This note provides an overview of Korea’s digital education ecosystem, including the digital tools for system and institutional management and digital resources for teaching and learning that are publicly provided to schools and educational stakeholders. The note outlines how public responsibilities for the governance of digital education are divided and examines how Korea supports the equitable and effective access to and use of digital technology and data in education. This includes through practices and policies on procurement, interoperability, data privacy and regulation, and digital competencies. Finally, the note discusses how Korea engages in any initiatives, including with the EdTech sector, to drive innovation and research and development towards an effective digital ecosystem.
Country Digital Education Ecosystems and Governance
18. Korea
Abstract
Key features
The Ministry of Education and its public agency, the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), own, provide and oversee a number of digital tools for system and school management, and a range of digital resources for teaching and learning. Three core infrastructure are: (1) National Education Information System (NEIS) that handles personnel affairs, teacher and school staff salaries, school and educational affairs as well as school meal plans, and provides students and parents with access to education-related information and school certificates; (2) K‑EduFine, a budgeting, accounting and administration system; (3) Edunet Teacher-Curriculum, Learning, Evaluation and Activity Resources (Edunet T-Clear), a national teaching-learning centre responsible for providing digital teaching and learning resources.
17 local (metropolitan, municipal, provincial) Offices of Education also share some responsibility, along with the ministry, for providing digital infrastructure for system and school management (e.g. local maintenance of hardware infrastructure, managing day-to-day operations and financially contributing to the development and upgrade of digital systems).
The access to, and use of, data and digital technology in education is regulated mainly by the ministry. The use of publicly provided tools for system and school management is mandatory, whereas the use of publicly provided teaching and learning resources is not. Schools and teachers may choose whether they will procure and use additional teaching and learning resources from commercial providers and other stakeholders. Some commercial tools (e.g. Google Classroom, Microsoft Office, Naver Whalespace) are procured by the local Offices of Education.1
The Korean government has long pursued a digital education strategy. In 2023, the ministry of education established a new bureau dedicated to digital transformation of education. It also launched the Digital Transformation of Education Initiative, which targets the integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to foster personalised learning experiences for every student within school settings. The initiative includes the development and dissemination of AI-embedded digital textbooks and the professional development of teachers to transform classes via digital technology.2
General policy context
Division of responsibility
In Korea, the Ministry of Education and its public agency, the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), are primarily responsible for providing access to the digital education infrastructure at all levels. They provide access to, and regulate and enforce the use of, digital tools for system and school management, while providing and promoting the use of digital teaching and learning resources. However, 17 local (metropolitan, municipal, provincial) Offices of Education also share some of this responsibility for both primary and secondary education, including managing day-to-day operation of the digital tools and resource platforms, locally maintaining hardware infrastructure, making financial contributions, and implementing guidelines and by-laws about access to, and use of, digital technologies in education within their jurisdiction.3
Compared to many other OECD countries, Korea seldom entrusts the responsibility for providing the digital education infrastructure to the private sector. The Ministry of Education owns and provides the majority of tools and resources prevailing in the country’s schools. However, teachers may choose to acquire and use additional software or teaching and learning resources from private vendors and other educational stakeholders that provide them for free, such as KERIS, public broadcasting stations, universities, and the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations. In addition, public school teachers in Korea transfer to different public schools every 4-5 years, and they form peer study groups within and across the schools where they share with other teachers some of those resources and software.
Digital education strategy
Since 1998, the Korean government has been developing digital strategies for education, annually publishing (via KERIS) white papers on digital education.4 Several local offices of education have also regularly published their own digital strategies, promoting the regional priorities.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Korean government made several changes to their digital education policies and expenditures, with a view to providing and enhancing digital hardware infrastructure. This had manifested in their efforts to improve broadband, Wi-Fi coverage in schools, and to furnish digital devices to schools and students. Specifically, a special COVID-19 fund, collected from the national treasury and local offices of education, was set up within the budget of the ministry to help students from low-income families. To ensure remote learning is available for all, the ministry also reallocated its budget for school outdoor activities and in-person events (e.g. field trip, sporting event) to the provision of hardware for students from disadvantaged groups (e.g. low-income and single-parent families, students in remote areas, etc.). In addition, early in the pandemic, the government set up public-private partnerships with the country’s telecommunications service providers and private companies (e.g. KT Corporation, LG, Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom), renting 316 000 digital devices for free to the disadvantaged students, and supported them with a free mobile data plan for accessing education platforms (e.g. e-Learning Site, Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) online class) as well as with subsidies for Internet subscription. These supports are still ongoing with a view to promoting educational innovation.
Although improving hardware provision has long been a priority, and especially so during the pandemic, the country’s most recent digital education strategy, published in 2023, pays a greater attention to (1) supporting the transition of teacher’s roles from traditional lecturers to learning designers, coaches, and mentors, and (2) building an EdTech ecosystem that promotes the co-development of education and the EdTech industry.5 AI Digital Textbooks that is to be introduced in 2025 will provide teachers with the data of learning process and outcomes of students, and provide students with intelligent tutoring systems and more personalised education.
To help enhance students’ digital skills, the government has announced that coding class will become a compulsory subject for students at primary and lower secondary levels as of 2025, and the time dedicated to digital competence courses will double.6 “AI pilot schools” that provide a diversity of AI-related education activities (e.g. teaching students how to programme AI) will continue to expand (their number increased from 247 in 2020 to 1 095 in 2022).
The public digital education infrastructure
Digital ecosystem for system and school management
Student information and enrolment system
In Korea, the central government maintains a central education database to generate educational statistics and a publicly available school information dashboard, the Education Information Disclosure System (Hakgyo Allimi).7 To run the database and dashboard, the government uses a multi-faceted system called the National Education Information System (NEIS). The government provides and mandates the use of NEIS in both public and private schools at all levels of education.8 NEIS combines the features of a student information system, a school administrative function system, a customer relationship management system, and a digital credential system, which are often separated in most other OECD countries. Therefore, NEIS provides a large variety of functions. It assigns a unique longitudinal identifier for students and teachers, tagged with their Resident Registration Number (although RRN will no longer be collected from the summer of 2023).9 In addition, it helps teachers and school staff to manage student admission and enrolment, record the students’ standardised test results and teacher-given grades, track student progress and learning trajectory throughout the school year, and transfer student qualifications to other educational institutions (including colleges and universities) in the country. NEIS also contains some information about teachers and school staff (e.g. their salaries, expenses, and training and development records).
Due to the size and complexity of the system and its mandated use, NEIS provides different sign-in pages according to each user’s role and position. The functions mentioned above are confined to teachers, school staff or officials in the ministry and local offices of education, and the type of information and function they can access varies depending on their entitlements.10 NEIS also runs two public interfaces for managing relation with students and parents: NEIS for students and NEIS for parents, where students and parents can find or request information about, inter alia, their transcript, timetable, meal plan, school facilities, etc.11
Administrative management, online exam administration, and other support systems
While NEIS covers the widest range of functions for system and school management, the ministry additionally provides a tool called K-EduFine. This system combines formerly dispersed school administration and finance systems, and its use is mandated for budgeting, accounting, and several other administrative tasks, including the approval and transfer of official and work-related documents (e.g. manuals, information conferences, etc.), management of teacher and staff’s schedule, and so forth.12 The local offices of education are legally required to use K-EduFine too, but for different purposes, such as allocating funding to schools. A fraction of the information processed through K-EduFine is made available publicly via the Local Education Finance Information Disclosure System (Jibang Gyoyuk Jaejung Allimi), similar to the way (some) information from NEIS is made available publicly through the Education Information Disclosure System.13
Beside the digital tools to facilitate system and school management, the Ministry of Education also contributes to other components of the digital education ecosystem in Korea. For example, they conduct annually a National Assessment of Educational Achievement, which has been administered entirely as a computer-based assessment since 2022. This is a low-stake assessment, as the score does not contribute to the students’ final mark, and it is taken only by students in certain years in sampled secondary schools; though, other schools can choose to opt into the assessment.14
The ministry has also set up two career guidance platforms. One of them is the Guidance for Dreaming Children (Ggoomgil), offering students enrolled in formal education at all levels with an opportunity to “try out” various careers; the other is HIFIVE, a guidance platform specifically for those planning to proceed to, or enrolled in, vocational education and training (VET).15 In addition, there is another publicly provided career guidance platform, CareerNet, developed by the ministry and run by the Korea Research Institute for vocational education and training, providing anyone with a mapping of various universities, departments and related careers, and a career aptitude test.16 Some local offices of education also provide their own career platforms for regional students (e.g. Incheon Cyber Career Institute).17
Digital ecosystem for teaching and learning
Compared to the provision of digital tools for system and school management, the ministry plays a less prominent role in the public provision of digital resources for teaching and learning. While it does offer such resources for free, schools have varying degrees of autonomy as regards their choice of providers and may prefer to use other resources. Still, many publicly provided resources are commonly used by schools and teachers. The vast majority of such public resources is provided via Edunet T-Clear, a platform through which multiple educational applications, including one of the two publicly provided learning management systems, can be accessed.18 This system is e-Learning Site (e-Hakseupteo), which is used mainly by primary and lower secondary school students.19 Another publicly provided learning management system, not provided via Edunet T-Clear, is EBS Online Class, which has been set up jointly by the ministry and the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS), and used chiefly by secondary school students.20 Both public learning management systems provide various static and interactive learning resources, real-time video classes, as well as an analytic dashboard that records students’ learning trajectory. Meanwhile, the ministry of education plans to introduce AI-enhanced digital textbooks as of 2025, distinct from existing textbooks, to cater to individual students’ capabilities and learning pace. These AI digital textbooks are developed by the private sector and approved by the government.
Examples of other Edunet-based applications include Digital Textbooks that provides e-textbooks, and Wedorang, an online learning community where teachers can share learning materials with students, have group discussions, and assign homework.21 All tools and resources in this publicly provided and widespread digital ecosystem are available for free for teachers and students to use, and accessible through an Edunet T-Clear SSO service with a single Edunet T-Clear credential.
As remote learning became a new norm during the pandemic, however, the ministry and KERIS launched additional platforms for facilitating teaching and learning. They added more applications to Edunet T-Clear, such as the ICT-based Teacher Development Assistance platform (ITDA, meaning to connect), an online repository of public and private educational resources designed to help teachers create learning contents, and Knowledge Spring (Jisik Saemteo), a personalised and flexible teacher-training platform.22
Despite the remote learning features included in Edunet T-Clear, during the COVID-19 outbreak other private tools (e.g. Google Classroom, Zoom) proved to be the most widely used platforms by teachers for organising remote learning – illustrating the exercise of teachers’ pedagogical autonomy and the idea that public provision and actual use are not always correlated.
Responsibility of local governments
While a large proportion of digital teaching and learning resources is provided by the ministry, local offices of education also contribute. They manage the day-to-day operation of Edunet T-Clear platforms, create some of the educational contents offered, make financial contributions to its central budget, maintain the hardware servers, and so forth. Some offices also provide their own platforms for supporting teaching and learning: for example, Incheon Metropolitan City offers the Incheon Education Platform to its students at all levels of education, and the Gyeongsangbuk-do province provides the Self-recognition of Academic Achievement platform for students at upper primary (3-6 grades) and lower secondary levels to self-assess their knowledge and obtain corresponding digital badges.23 Using the local educational platforms requires a student to register with their (local) school information, keeping students from other regions from joining the platforms.
Access, use and governance of digital technologies and data in education
Providing a public digital education infrastructure or funding to use digital resources does not necessarily mean that schools and teachers will use them. Different rules and guidelines can therefore support access to, and the use of, digital technologies in education.
Ensuring access and supporting use
Equity of access
Korea has made several efforts to ensure an equity of access to digital tools and resources in education. The public and centralised provision of digital tools for system and school management and resources for teaching and learning enables students, teachers and schools to access the digital education ecosystem in a sustained and equitable way across all education levels. In the case of administrative tools, all schools have an equal access to the government tools, some of which they must use (e.g. NEIS).
Regulation on equitable access to educational opportunities at all levels of education provides an equity framework in the case of digitalisation, too. The digital divide is addressed through the provision of financial and educational support for the disadvantaged groups. For instance, from prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korean government has long been providing disadvantaged students with access to relevant hardware. Between 2014 and 2018, around 733 000 students from the disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g. from low-income, single parent, North Korean refugee families) were supported with USD 1.6 billion. Students with special educational needs and disabilities have been offered customised support, such as alternative text, screen reading, sign language and subtitles, and assistive technologies (e.g. alternative mouse, digital therapy programme) to improve their accessibility to educational contents. In addition, albeit not specifically in the education context, the Intellectual Information Basic Act stipulates that the central and local governments may subsidise digital skills courses for the disabled, the elderly, or those from low socio-economic backgrounds (including students); or provide financial and technological supports to individuals or companies developing digital and information products, or enhancing their inclusivity, for the same groups.24
To ensure an even distribution of the digital infrastructure for education across schools and students (e.g. one device per student) while considering the regional variances, the ministry carries out consultations with local offices of education and schools. However, the responsibility for creating device purchase contracts and making decisions about distribution is shifted to the local offices of education (or sometimes schools), which can result in different devices being distributed across districts and schools. For instance, each office has its own procurement guidelines and specification requirements for the devices, leading to different decisions that may result in the distribution of varying types of devices across regions and schools (e.g. iPad or Galaxy Tabs vs. budget tablets).
Supporting the use of digital tools and resources
The Ministry of Education and KERIS directly provide a vast range of publicly owned digital tools and resources to support system and school management, as well as teaching and learning. The use of the publicly owned system and school management tools (e.g. NEIS, K-EduFine) is mandated across all schools (except for higher education and a few small-sized alternative schools): this ensures a universal use of the systems and makes the tools more efficient from a central perspective. The use of publicly provided resources for teaching and learning (e.g. Edunet T-Clear), on the other hand, is not mandatory. The ministry and local offices of education encourage their use in several ways, notably by providing guidance to teachers on how to use such resources, professional learning opportunities, and giving awards to teachers for exemplary use of such resources.
The ministry also supplements the publicly owned digital tools and resources with commercial licensed software, procured by the local offices of education. They typically negotiate special education pricing and contracts on several software. However, public procurement is reserved only for software that the offices of education consider of general importance (e.g. Google Classroom, Microsoft Office); for most other private resources for teaching and learning, schools procure them by themselves, using their own budget (planned and distributed by each local office of education).
Cultivating the digital competence of education stakeholders
In Korea, teacher-training institutions autonomously develop training courses in accordance with the ministry’s detailed 'Teacher Training Certification Standards', which includes a knowledge area on digital education. The ministry also supports local offices of education by providing (non-binding) guidelines on the specific uses of digital technology in classes and on the further development of teacher digital competences as part of their in-service training (from which each local office develops and implements a teacher training plan). Since the pandemic, the ministry has expanded their support for teacher training and the development of digital competences: for instance, they established Knowledge Spring, an Edunet-based teacher-training platform where teachers can voluntarily upload training courses and take courses uploaded by colleagues to strengthen their digital capability and remote teaching competence.25 However, there is no obligation to use it. The ministry also operates a section within the Knowledge Spring platform focused on providing training on specific EdTech tools. Furthermore, as part of the Digital-Based Education Innovation Plan announced this year, Korea plans to train teachers who are to be at the forefront of digital pedagogical innovation. The plan will start by training 400 teachers in 2023, with a goal to expand this number to 2 000 by 2025.
Cultivating students’ digital competences constitutes a key part of the national curriculum. The aforesaid digital competence courses are one of the compulsory subjects both in primary and lower secondary education, covering a range of topics – from computational thinking and AI to software use.26 While this subject is not compulsory for students in upper secondary education and VET, a variety of elective courses about, inter alia, informatics, AI basics, information science, etc. are offered to them. During the pandemic, the ministry provided further supports, such as the EduTech Mentoring and Digital Tutorship schemes, which put pedagogical and digital leaders (such as qualified individuals and (under)graduates majoring in education) in touch with students in need of support. The inclusion of a digital competence subject provides incentives for teachers to develop their own digital competences as well.
Governance of data and digital technologies in education
National data protection and privacy rules, both in general (via the Personal Information Protection Act) and regarding student data and privacy specifically at all levels of education (via the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), regulate the use and sharing of education data. For instance, students’ personal information, such as their health records, cannot be transferred to third parties without the consent from students, regardless of their age. The consent from parents (and legal guardians) is also additionally required for students under the age of 14.27 Teachers and school staff’s data and privacy, on the other hand, are protected by the general rule alone, but they have an obligation to take trainings related to the protection of their own data and privacy. The ministry also provides various guidelines to schools on data protection, privacy and online security, and carries out an annual inspection of schools’ legal compliance as well as diagnosis of data protection conditions to ensure that personal information is kept secure and protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing.
The use of automated decision-making, AI-powered algorithmic model, or digital proctoring currently remains inexistent or limited.28 Therefore, little policy effort or regulation governs these aspects. Yet, a new bill addressing the governance, human resource development, ethical guidelines, and other essential components for advancing AI education has been presented to the National Assembly (AI Education promotion Act). In August 2022, the Ministry of Education announced the world’s first Ethical Principles of AI in Education.29 In addition, there are non-binding guidelines about the efficiency and minimum performance standards of digital technologies used in education.30
To facilitate data portability across systems, the ministry provides guidelines that explain in detail the use of the single sign-on (SSO) system for Edunet T-Clear applications.31 Rule governing the interoperability of digital technologies exist for all public institutions (and apply to public educational institutions as well).32
Supporting innovation and research and development (R&D) in digital education
In the last five years, the ministry has supported innovation, research and development in digital education in various ways. They have encouraged teachers to develop digital educational materials through ITDA and Knowledge Spring, and commissioned research in diverse areas of digital education to universities and public research agencies (e.g. KERIS, KEDI).33 For example, improving learning outcomes and student engagement, optimising student assessment and school management, supporting teaching, and helping students with special educational needs.34
In addition, under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Disclosure of Information by Education-Related Institutions and relevant decrees, some education data can be made available for academic use to the wider public and private research community, including the publicly documented education data on the Education Information Disclosure System and the Korean Educational Statistics Service.35
In Korea, associations composed of EdTech companies are collaborating with the ministry of education and the ministry of trade, industry, and energy to promote the development of the EdTech industry and the use of technologies in education. One of their events, the EdTech Korea Fair, seeks to bring together a community of entrepreneurs, businesses, ministry officials and educators.36 However, the ministry of education has mostly contracted research and development projects, as well as the development of specific digital tools for education, to public agencies (e.g. KERIS), and supported the industry through indirect and non-monetary ways. In response, the ministry established the EdTech Promotion Plan in September 2023 under a consensus that private-sector technology is essential for a successful digital transformation of education.37 The plan aims to create an ecosystem where public education and the EdTech industry grow together on the basis of public-private partnership. Major tasks of the plan include (1) promoting the use of EdTech in schools, (2) fostering the EdTech industry in conjunction with public education, (3) expanding Korean EdTech exports, and (4) establishing a national-level EdTech support system. It is anticipated that private sector innovation and development in the digital education field will be incentivised.
Notes
← 1. Naver Whalespace is an educational platform developed and serviced by the Naver Corporation, the Korean internet conglomerate.
← 2. Please note that the ministry’s most recent efforts may not be reflected in the following contents.
← 3. For the full list of Offices of Education, see: http://english.moe.go.kr/sub/info.do?m=0803&s=english
← 4. The English translation for the white paper has changed from “Adapting Education to the Information Age” (1998-2012) to “White Paper on ICT in Education” (2013-now). However, the original Korean title remains the same. These papers can be retrieved at: https://www.keris.or.kr/main/na/ntt/selectNttList.do?mi=1244&bbsId=1104#none
← 5. This strategy is aligned with the Digital Transformation of Education Initiative and EdTech Promotion Plan of the Ministry of Education.
Digital Transformation of Education Initiative:
EdTech Promotion Plan:
← 6. Currently a minimum of 17 hours for primary school students, and 34 hours for lower secondary school students, and it will become 34 and 68 hours, respectively.
← 8. The following laws and rules provide the legal basis for the operation and use of NEIS: (1) Article 23 of the Framework Act on Education (informatisation of education); (2) Article 25 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (school records); (3) Article 30-4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the development and operation of educational information systems); (4) the Ministry of Education’s “Rules for Early Childhood Education Information System and Operation of Education Information System”. In Korea, independent private schools are still (at least partly) funded by the government, and so considered as part of “public education” sector. Only a few small-sized alternative schools are exempt from the requirement to use NEIS.
← 9. Resident Registration Number is akin to National Identification Number, issued to all residents of South Korea. This unique identifier on NEIS differs from their Resident Registration Number.
← 10. For instance, ministry officials cannot check students’ personal data, such as exam records.
← 12. The following laws provides the legal basis for using K-EduFine: (1) Local Education Subsidy Act; (2) Elementary and Secondary Education Act; (3) Framework Act on Education. Also, due to a corruption scandal over the account of several private kindergartens in 2018-2019, K-EduFine has since been mandated to be used by private kindergartens as well.
← 14. The sample is three per cent of all third-year (final-year) students in lower secondary schools, and of all second-year students in upper secondary schools.
← 15. Guidance for Dreaming Children: https://www.ggoomgil.go.kr/front/index.do; HIFIVE: https://www.hifive.go.kr/index.jsp
← 20. https://www.ebsoc.co.kr/. As a media company, the EBS is not classified as a public institution, but as an institution under the jurisdiction of the Korea Communications Commission, the country’s media regulation agency. Although the EBS is not regulated by the Ministry of Education, it conducts EBS Online Class with funding from the ministry.
← 21. Digital Textbooks: https://webdt.edunet.net/; Wedorang: https://rang.edunet.net/main.do
← 22. ITDA: https://itda.edunet.net/intro.do; Knowledge Spring: https://educator.edunet.net/
← 23. Incheon Education Platform: https://edu-p.ice.go.kr/index.do?sso=ok; Self-Recognition of Academic Achievement: http://edu.gyo6.net/onlinetest/info/main.do
← 24. See https://www.law.go.kr/%EB%B2%95%EB%A0%B9/%EC%A7%80%EB%8A%A5%EC%A0%95%EB%B3%B4%ED%99%94%EA%B8%B0%EB%B3%B8%EB%B2%95
← 25. This platform is expected to provide teachers with the opportunity to further their own development without being restricted by time, space and standardised institutional-led training modules, as they can flexibly select courses and training time to suit their own schedule and needs.
← 26. Currently 17 hours for primary school students, and 34 hours for lower secondary school students, which will double from 2025. There is no rule for upper secondary school students.
← 27. Unless required for law enforcement or public audit purpose, or the information is anonymised fully and provided for public research.
← 28. Interestingly, the country’s Open University has adopted digital proctoring methods for exams; but this is just an exception.
← 29. The Ethical Principles of AI in Education:
← 30. Smart School Environment Guideline 2.0:
https://keris.or.kr/main/ad/pblcte/selectPblcteETCInfo.do?mi=1142&pblcteSeq=13633
← 31. Only the Edunet T-Clear applications (e.g. e-Learning Site, Digital Textbooks, Wedorang) can be accessed via this SSO service.
← 32. The Electronic Government Act.
← 33. See, for instance, Korean Educational Statistics Service: https://kess.kedi.re.kr/index;
← 34. See, for instance: Kim, Hyesook (2014) The effect of ICT utilisation on academic achievement – focusing on PISA 2012 data for Korea. Available at:
https://keris.or.kr/main/ad/pblcte/selectPblcteRMInfo.do?mi=1139&pblcteSeq=10980
← 35. See https://law.go.kr/LSW/eng/engLsSc.do?menuId=2§ion=lawNm&query=Act+on+Special+Cases+Concerning+the+Disclosure+&x=0&y=0#AJAX
← 36. For instance, the website for 2022 fair: https://www.edtechkorea.or.kr/fairDash.do