On 29th November 2018, the Ministry of Education (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-Hae), Korean Educational Development Institute-KEDI (President Ban Sang-jin) and Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training-KRIVET (President Ra Young-sun) meet at the Novotel Ambassador (Seoul, Dongdaemun) to host the 2018 Korea-OECD International Seminar under the theme "Education Equity for Quality Life: Moving Forward Beyond Barriers".

The Korea-OECD international Seminar, held from 1999 to 2017, have contributed to exploring Korea-OECD education cooperation plans and have provided suggestions relating to education policies in the field of teacher's policy, assessment of academic achievements, human resources policies, quality assurance of higher education, early childhood education and daycare policies,

This Seminar aims to find solutions to the issues of educational equity in various fields of education and the characteristics of social policies according to the "Visions and Strategy for an Inclusive Country" of the Moon Jae-in government published last September, and to focus on the improvement of educational equity.

In a special session, a key agenda for achieving an innovative and inclusive country will be discussed in comparison with other OECD countries. In this session, plans for inclusive and innovative social policies will be discussed in order to find solutions for Korea's next leap forward.

Participants from the OECD Secretariat, the Korean Ministry of Education, KEDI, KRIVET, as well as 150 education specialists from Korea and around the world will be attending the Seminar.

In a keynote speech in the morning session, Director-General of the Future Education Research Division Kim Jeong-won of KEDI will talk about the main issues related to educational equity, and suggest development plans. The subject of his speech will be the "Education Expansion and Equity in Korea" and it will deal with the process of education expansion in the Korean society, as well as major class dispersion trends.

Mr. Paulo Santiago, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division of the OECD, will analyze gender equality and fairness in education opportunity from the viewpoint of the OECD educational system, and will discuss related challenges.

The afternoon session will consist of "Educational Policy (Session I)" and "Social Policy (Session II)".

(Session I) In the session "Educational Policy", specialists from the Netherlands, Japan, India and Korea will discuss and present the current status of educational equity in each country and the main issues in diverse fields of education under the subject "Educational Equity in Global Society" and "Equity by Education Sectors in Korea".

(Session II) In the session of "Social Policy", presentations and discussions will take place about "Modernizing the Korean Social Policies: International Lessons from OECD Member Countries" and "Social Policy of Inclusion and Innovation for Better Life".

This session will point out that Korea is late compared to other OECD member countries in converting to a welfare state, and that in order to develop into an innovative and inclusive country, not only social security should be strengthened, but also the use of human resources should be improved.

Besides, in order to establish an early childhood education and childcare environment adjusted to the changing childcare environment, roles concerning the regulation between the government and local governments should be clearly set out, and an efficient information sharing system should be established, and consistent regulations should be secured.

Mr. Kim Young Chul, Deputy Minister of the Office of Policy Coordination and Planning of the Ministry of Education said in his Welcome Speech, "This Seminar is a place where we find the solution for educational and social policies from the viewpoint of an inclusive country". He also indicated, "We hope that the OECD's data and research results on various fields of social policies will contribute to finding a solution to educational policies around the world".

* unofficial translation