Due to COVID-19, the South Korean government has encouraged people to practice social distancing to prevent further spread of the virus. As a result, the Ministry of Education (MOE) delayed the commencement of the 2020 academic year. At this time, Kim Gyeong Soo, the Governor of Gyeongnam Province, suggested adopting a new education system in which the academic year begins in September. Meanwhile, with the pandemic not calming down, schools commenced online classes from the second week of April, and reformation of the system became practically impossible.

Not all students and parents are supportive of the current policy to start the semester online. A national petition to delay the start of the new semester to September was posted on March 22. The petition claimed that adopting the Fall-Spring Bi-semester System (FBS) at this time would be much more convenient for anyone pursuing international transfers. Indeed, more than 70 percent of the schools worldwide begin their new academic year in September. Furthermore, among the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, only South Korea, Japan, and Australia do not start their academic year in September.

The new system would indeed break the unnecessary barrier for transfers. South Korea can benefit from changing its education system to meet international standards by adopting FBS. If the start of the semester was the same as most other countries, the transfer process would be more convenient. More Korean students would be able to study abroad, and more international students would come into Korea. Moreover, adopting the FBS would resolve the problem of the awkwardly placed spring vacation, and students would also have an extended summer vacation.

However, this is not the first time the FBS has been proposed. First suggested in 1997, the MOE has attempted to adopt the FBS several times, but they have had to give up due to overwhelming costs. According to a report by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), “Implementation Plan for the Fall-Spring Bi-semester System (2015),” reforming the academic year to start in September would cost about 10 trillion won.

Adopting the FBS is not a simple matter. The whole academic schedule would have to be adjusted to the new system, including the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). Implementing the system would cause considerable confusion because the MOE can neither force every student to stay in their current academic year for six more months nor allow every student to pass on to their next grade six months earlier. In either case, the MOE would have to introduce a new curriculum for the entire student population which would be very costly. Moreover, the university application period would have to be reformed accordingly, and even the job recruiting schedules could be affected.

The adoption of the FBS would introduce a more convenient transferring system and attract more international students to come to Korea to study. However, the MOE cannot guarantee that these anticipated positive effects of the FBS would exceed or compensate for the immense cost of the reform. The proposal for changing the start of the semester would lead to reforming other academic schedules. Therefore, maintaining the current system and seeking alternative methods to make the international transfer system easier would be a more practical and efficient plan.