SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea plans to compel secondary schools to use a single state-authored history textbook from the school year of 2017 with the aim of teaching students" right history."
The Education Ministry on Monday issued an administrative measure to force the use of a state-designated book on history for middle and high school students from 2017.
Now, secondary school chiefs can choose one among eight history books printed by private publishers, which are required to win approval from the government. Primary schools employ a single state-authored book.
Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea told a press briefing that history textbooks will be written based on the spirit of constitution and objective facts to breed up youths with"right view of state and balanced perception of history."
The government reached a conclusion that history textbooks printed by private publishers could not be re-written one by one under the current government-approval system, Hwang said.
The single state-authored history textbook was introduced for the first time in South Korea in 1974 when former President Park Chung-hee, father of incumbent President Park Geun-hye, was taking power after a military coup.
In 2003, the country partially revived the state-approval system for history textbooks, which are written by private publishers and authorized by the government. From 2010, the state- approval system was expanded to all history textbooks.
The transition into a single history textbook system is expected to raise controversy as opposition lawmakers and left- leaning historians strongly oppose to it, saying that the state- authorized book would glorify the military coup of the former president and prevent youths from making a varying interpretation of history.
