THE Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC) plans to develop an English education city on Jeju’s southern coast, South Korea, at a cost of 1.4 trillion won ($981 million). JDC tries to attract overseas students and give South Korean parents who are looking to send their children abroad for further education another option, the JoongAng Daily has reported.

According to JDC, the goal is “to develop a global city renowned for English education”. Twelve schools will be built — that’s seven elementary schools, four middle schools and one international high school. The blueprints will be laid out in the first half of next year and construction will begin soon after.

At present, the English Village in Paju, north of Seoul, is the country’s largest English studies theme park. The Jeju English Education City will cover an area nearly 170 times that of Paju’s.

To create an English-speaking environment, JDC plans to attract people from English-speaking countries to live on Jeju Island either for the short term or long term. Students will be entirely taught by native English speakers except for subjects of Korean and South Korean history. The annual tuition is estimated at about $10,000.

“The curriculum and quality of the teachers are the most important factors,” said Lee Mi-jung of the English education department at Seoul National University of Education.

For the new English city to interest South Korean families, it has to compete with a national mindset that prefers overseas education. According to a survey released by the South Korea National Statistical Office on October 17, approximately over half the parents polled want to send their children abroad. Getting parents to believe in the quality of the English Education City will be the main challenge over the next several years.