Education abroad: E-books will augment real textbooks in schools of South Korea

Elementary, middle and high school students will be learning with electronic textbooks in addition to currently used paper textbooks starting next year, said the Education Ministry of the South Korea.

Students will be using paper-based textbooks at school and use the e-books with personal computers at home. The entire content of paper-based textbooks will be contained on the CD-ROMs. Korean literature and language, English and mathematics will be chosen first and other subjects will be gradually added, according to the ministry.

The ministry said the e-textbooks will be distributed to elementary and middle school students free of charge while high school students will be required to buy them.

The ministry said its move to diversify textbooks is aimed at reflecting rapidly changing trends and the need to make changes in accordance with the fast progress in modern science.

Some elementary schools have been using pilot digital textbooks since 2006. Digital textbooks are differentiated from e-textbooks in that the former not only contain text but also various multimedia content ranging from video clips to animations and electronic dictionaries. However, for the digital textbooks to be widely adopted, schools must buy expensive terminals specially devised for them and teachers must undergo training in their use.