THE Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that it would initiate a feasibility study on the effectiveness of English-language immersion education at public schools, The Korea Herald has reported.

According to education officials, the study will look into whether English immersion education programs fit the nation’s educational system and what the benefits of this approach are. If the new system is proven to be effective, researchers will be asked to formulate a strategy for instituting the program. The office has allocated 30 million won ($27,681) for the study.

“The fact that we’re going to conduct this study does not mean that we’re planning to implement English immersion education. This study is being held to get a glimpse of the value of the program, from various perspectives,” an education office official said.

English immersion education is designed to teach all subjects in English. Currently, 13 public and 17 private schools in Seoul use English immersion education in some of their classes.

This move, however, is likely to draw criticism from people in academia, who have opposed the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s educational reform plan since early this year. Groups of professors and doctoral students in education have expressed their concerns, saying that English immersion is premature and not backed up by an adequate educational philosophy.

In the midst of such fierce opposition, President Lee announced in March that he would not push for English immersion. Instead, he proposed to increase the number of English lessons in schools so that students can depend less on private education after school.

The South Korean Ministry of Education said it would revise certain policies in December, in order to recruit TEE (Teaching English in English) teachers and expand the career training program for existing English teachers.