Inclusive Education in South Korea

Overview & Synopsis

Over the past few decades, inclusive education in South Korea has continued to grow both in quantity and quality. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to report on the legal basis and the current status of inclusive education in South Korea and (b) to synthesize policy tasks and prominent outcomes related to inclusive education in South Korea. The major findings are as follows. First, according to the 2022 Special Education Annual Report provided by the Ministry of Education, approximately 73% of students eligible for special education received either part-time (56% of students) or full-time (17% of students) inclusive education. Second, it was found that there were significant outcomes in the five elements of support (i.e., human support, social climate support, physical environment support, curriculum support, and financial and operational support), which are quality indicators of inclusive education. Based on these findings, we discuss issues of inclusive education, future directions, and suggestions for the further development of inclusive education in South Korea.