Minister Choi Kyo-jin said on the 3rd, "As life expectancy increases and we enter a super-aged society, lifelong education is no longer a choice but a necessity."
The Minister said this at a roundtable held that day at the Government Sejong Complex, to which lifelong education experts and organizations were invited.
The Minister said, "Under the constitutional principle that all citizens have the right to receive education equally according to their abilities, the Ministry of Education has supported a variety of lifelong education policies so that all citizens can learn throughout their lives."
He added, "Amid the wave of digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced technologies are changing our daily lives and workplaces very rapidly," and "Jobs that once seemed stable are disappearing and new ones are emerging, and we have entered an era in which we cannot live by doing just one thing for our entire lives."
The Minister also said, "At the same time, the reality of increasing life expectancy and entering a super-aged society makes us realize that education only during adolescence has reached certain limits for living a long life," and "In the midst of these changes, lifelong education is no longer a choice but a necessity."
He went on to say, "Lifelong education must continue to evolve to respond to these changes," and "Through the lifelong learning city project, the Ministry of Education will build learning infrastructure across regions and, in cooperation with local governments, turn spaces close to residents' daily lives—such as lifelong learning centers and lifelong learning hubs—into bases for lifelong learning."