Vocational high schools for multicultural students to open next year

SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- Two alternative high schools will open next year for students from multicultural families in an effort to help them better adapt to Korean culture and find jobs after graduation, the education ministry and local education boards said Tuesday.
   Under a social integration program supported by the ministries of education and labor, an alternative high school in Jecheon, 168 kilometers south of Seoul, will offer a three-year program to teach multicultural students Korean language, culture and technical skills, ministry officials said.
   The school will offer students free room and board and full scholarships, while introducing employment opportunities through the labor ministry's employment center to assist them in the job search after graduation, officials said.
   Under another project, which the Seoul city government and education board agreed to in December, the education ministry will remodel a Seoul vocational school into an alternative high school for multicultural students, officials noted.
   It is set to open next March to educate students who have a parent from another nation.
   According to ministry data, South Korea had 31,788 elementary, middle and high school students from multicultural families as of April last year, with the ratio of students moving onto higher levels of schooling reaching 99.7 percent, 97.9 percent and 86.5 percent, respectively.