KUALA LUMPUR - The Education Minister Choi Kyo Jin announced a set of education policies targeting foreign students and those from multicultural families to better support non-native Korean speakers, last Friday.

He said, central to the reforms is a full digitization of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), the standardized Korean-language exam for non-native speakers, scheduled to be implemented by 2029.

Choi added, under the new system, TOPIK will be computer-based and can be taken remotely, allowing students to sit for the exam from home, with grading assisted by artificial intelligence.

TOPIK is widely used by foreign residents for university admissions, scholarships, and job applications in Korea, and demand has risen alongside the global popularity of Korean culture.

The TOPIK overhaul is part of a broader effort to expand Korean-language education overseas and improve support for foreign students within Korea.

He highlighted that as part of the international push, the Education Ministry will increase the number of Korean-language teachers sent abroad from 77 to about 100 by 2026, and will appoint 20 teaching assistants to support Korean conversation and cultural education.

Currently, Korean-language programs run at 2,777 schools across 47 countries, and the ministry will also send 260,000 printed textbooks to 10 countries by 2026 while developing online resources.

Additionally, local Korean teachers from 18 countries will be invited to study in Korea to strengthen overseas programs.

Domestically, schools will offer AI-based Korean-learning modules, extra after-school and holiday programs, and a tailored proficiency assessment for international and multicultural students.

Students will also receive lists of common classroom vocabulary to prevent learning loss and improve language proficiency.

The policy comes as South Korea experiences demographic changes, including a rise in multicultural households, which grew to over 430,000 in 2024, up 46 percent from 2015.

Education Ministry data shows that more than 200,000 multicultural students were enrolled in Korean schools in 2025, while registered foreigners in Korea now number over 2.5 million, around 5 percent of the population.

The government projects that the number of school-age Koreans will halve by 2040, creating enrollment challenges for universities.

In response, Choi also announced plans to shorten the minimum period for foreign graduates studying artificial intelligence to obtain permanent residency from six years to three years, if they attend one of 27 government-approved universities.

“The Ministry of Education aims to implement these projects swiftly to realize shared growth between the individual, the school and the community through education,” said Choi.