Councilor Jo Byeong-jin Proposes 'RAS Certification System' Linked to University Admissions… Superintendent An Min-seok Says "Will Actively Reflect"
Jo Byeong-jin, a councilor for the Education Planning Committee of Gyeonggi Provincial Council (Democratic Party, Uijeongbu District 4), met with Gyeonggi Province Superintendent of Education An Min-seok at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education on the 2nd to propose the introduction of a 'RAS Certification System' to systematize RAS education and link it to university admissions.
Councilor Jo pointed out that while RAS education—connecting Reading, Arts (Culture), and Sports—supports students' balanced growth, high school students may experience low motivation to participate in activities due to entrance exam pressures and academic burdens. He emphasized the need for a systematic operational framework that goes beyond simple experiential activities, allowing students to discover their interests and aptitudes, and enabling activity experiences to lead to career exploration and university admission preparation.
The core of this proposal is to establish a certification system that recognizes students' activity experiences and growth processes on a step-by-step basis. It aims to set certification criteria centered on six areas—reading and humanities, career, sports and arts, clubs, and inquiry—with standards for participation, inquiry, and reflection stages, recognizing not only the quantity of activities but also the inquiry process, reflection, and career-linked efforts comprehensively.
As an operational method, he presented a plan to utilize existing creative experiential activity periods to operate the period from after final exams until before the school break as an intensive RAS activity period. The plan envisions that the Office of Education will establish basic operational models and certification criteria, while schools will autonomously select and operate programs according to their educational circumstances and student needs to enhance on-site applicability.
Superintendent An Min-seok expressed agreement with the intent of the proposal and indicated his will to actively reflect it in policy.
Councilor Jo Byeong-jin stated, "RAS education should not end at providing diverse experiences; it must lead to students discovering their interests and aptitudes and developing the power to design their futures. A system is needed that systematically recognizes not only what students have experienced but also what they have explored and how they have grown in the process."
He added, "Students' RAS activities should lead to career exploration and academic planning, and can be meaningfully utilized in the university admission process. We need to make certification criteria and operational models more concrete based on the views of the Office of Education and school sites, and I will support the implementation of an effective system."