Original article in Korean is at this link.

A study has found that foreign children who come to Korea for reasons including the remarriage of their parents experience difficulties in school life.

The Seoul Foundation of Women and Family (서울여성가족재단) announced on the 30th the results of its survey of 875 teenagers aged 7 to 18 staying in the country temporarily, finding that just 21.7% of them are attending elementary, middle, or high school.

The survey found that as they grow older they become less likely to attend school. The attendance rate was 56.4% for elementary school but 18.1% for middle school and a mere 3.1% for high school.

The organization said that “teenagers 15 or older staying in the country temporarily face the difficulty of being both in the confusion of puberty and coming from a multicultural family.”

“Educational authorities need to solve this problem with Korean language education, psychological aid, and advice,” it said.

The teenagers came to Korea either because their parents remarried or took Korean citizenship. Typically they have a foreign mother who marries a Korean man, then brings the children from their home country to Korea.

An official with the city said that “recently the Seoul Center for Multicultural Families Education (서울해비치다문화가족교육센터) has been working with the organizations Chung Mong-gu Foundation (현대차 정몽구재단) and the Center for Multiculturalism in Korea (한국다문화센터) and plans to offer Korean language and high school equivalency diploma lessons.”