Current State and Issues of Education for Older Adults in South Korea

In South Korea in 2018, the ratio of older adults (age 65+ years) was 13.8%, and the average life expectancy was 79 years for males and 85.2 years for females. South Korea is the fastest ageing country among the OECD countries. Beginning in the 1970s, senior citizen associations, welfare groups, religious communities, and private institutions began to provide learning opportunities for older adults. At the beginning of the 2000s, the South Korean Government established comprehensive packages of welfare policies for older adults, which have significantly increased the number of educational institutions and programmes for older adults. Policy for the older adults has been focused primarily on welfare aspects such as economic support and medical services. However, the new elderly generation of baby boomers are not satisfied with simple welfare programmes for them. They are interested in social participation and education in their old age in order to be able to utilise their experiences and knowledge. Lifelong education for older adults is important to improve the quality of life through improving their learning ability and active social participation. Thus, national and local educational administrations should change their school education-oriented policy and promote the education for older adults. In addition, South Korea must support voluntary institutions of education for older adults and facilitate civil actor participation in the governance of education for the elderly. It is also necessary to cultivate elderly education activists, develop elderly education programmes, and vitalise intergenerational education. Furthermore, for the development of South Korean educational gerontology, it is necessary to vitalise the academic research and discussion through the operation of the elderly education majors in the graduate courses.