– Agreement on Online Education for Marriage Immigrants to Be Signed

On September 24, Gyeonggi Province, POSCO, and Korea Digital University signed an agreement at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Complex to support online education in Korean language and culture for marriage immigrants and their families.

According to the agreement, Gyeonggi Province will partner with Korea Digital University to provide online training in Korean language and Korean culture for female marriage immigrants while offering language and culture education for Koreans who are married to immigrants.

Korea Digital University will produce the online educational contents and operate the education system, Gyeonggi Province will collect and manage trainees and provide educational support, and POSCO will provide the financial support.

This education project is different from other education programs for marriage immigrants in that the educational contents are offered online (e-camp.kdu.edu) in seven languages: Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, English, Mongolian, and Thai.

To assist with the social integration of marriage immigrants, the education program will consist of three stages: Stage 1 will feature Korean language and Korean culture, Stage 2 will feature foreign language and culture education for the husbands and children of marriage immigrants, and Stage 3 will focus on occupational capability development for marriage immigrants.

A spokesperson for Gyeonggi Province said, “As online education allows trainees to study whenever and wherever they are, it is ideal for marriage immigrants who typically have to take care of housework and children. In addition, the culture and language education also targets the husbands and family members of marriage immigrants. It is expected that the education program will significantly contribute to the education of multi-cultural families.”

So far, Gyeonggi Province has established 46 Korean language classes in 2008 to reinforce Korean education. A total of 1,748 trainees are currently studying in these 46 Korean language classes and 9 Marriage Immigrants’Family Support Centers. The province will expand the campaign to all cities and counties, and continuously encourage the families of marriage immigrants to overcome the cultural gaps and language barriers.

¢®¨ª Number of Marriage Immigrants in Gyeonggi Province: 28,135 (Female: 24,217 / Male: 3,918)
– 25.5% of the total marriage immigrants of Korea (110,362) reside in Gyeonggi Province (as of December 2007, Ministry of Justice)