By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter


The Defense Ministry seeks to allow soldiers out of college due to military service to take regular courses for up to six credits a year from the second half of next year, ministry officials said on Tuesday.

Under its five-year program to ``develop military human resources,’’ the ministry will focus on building an information-technology (IT) infrastructure in the nation’s military camps in order to provide service members with online education programs, including foreign language-learning programs, the officials said.

``The government will implement a pan-governmental program to upgrade conditions of military service and create a military environment to help new-generation soldiers develop themselves during their two years’ service,’’ Choi Woon, director of the ministry’s education division, said in a briefing.

A total of 11 government agencies, including the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, the Ministry of Information and Communication, and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, will participate in the program, Choi said.

As a first and most important step, the government will spend some 160 billion won ($150 million) to install personal computers (PCs) with wired and wireless LAN infrastructure in military camps on a gradual basis by 2011 so as to set up a ``e-Learning Portal System’’ in the country’s Armed Forces.

The government is scheduled to complete some 80 percent of the installation of IT infrastructure until next year and 16 PCs will be provided to each company with about 150 soldiers across the nation, according to the education plan.

The government will also seek to offer various educational opportunities to soldiers, as part of its efforts to build a ``culture of learning’’ and secure quality manpower for defense, said Kim Gwang-jo, director of the program at the education ministry.

Soldiers out of universities or colleges are able to take regular courses online for up to six credits per year using evenings or weekends, especially with the implementation of the five-day workweek, said Kim, director-general of the ministry’s Human Capital Policy Coordination Bureau.

To lay the legal groundwork for the program, the ruling Uri Party plans to submit a revision of the Military Service Law aimed at allowing service members to use the weekend for ``self-development’’ activities as early as September, Rep. Kim Myung-ja, chairwoman of the party’s ad hoc committee on the improvement of military culture, said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

About 82 percent of the nation’s enlisted soldiers are from universities or colleges, Kim Gwang-jo said, adding the government is currently discussing with universities how to develop the proposed-online education program.

Under the e-Learning system, the government will also provide soldiers with foreign language-learning programs and ones for national qualifications.

According to the results of a six-month pilot program until last June, more than 90 percent of soldiers who participated in the program said they were satisfied with the language courses, Kim said. About 45 percent of the soldiers wanted to improve their English language ability.

Among measures to promote language programs are a volunteered English-language learning club for soldiers and an English teaching class with the help of U.S. soldiers, he said.

``This is very important program for soldiers and the national defense,’’ Kim said. ``In the face of the low birth rate and the problem of aging society, our military will and have to go in a direction to slimmer but more productive and stronger forces. Providing educational opportunities for soldiers to help them keep on developing their abilities is the key to achieving that goal.’’

The government and political parties have stepped up efforts to improve military conditions in the wake of a series of incidents, including a shooting rampage at a frontline unit last month.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr