A suggestion for reforming defense education system and army college education program in the next decade

국방교육체계 정립과 육군대학 군사학 교육체계 발전방향

The purpose of this paper is to recommend the Ministry of Defense(MOD) for revolutionizing the current defense education system. As an instructor and an education planning officer of the ROK Army College, for last dozen months, the author has been embarrassed whenever tried to figure out what would be the role, functions, and educational goals of the college. In a nutshell, there has not been any general guidance for educating field grade officers. This unbelievable defect mainly comes from the absence of a responsible organization in the MOD. Even though it has the education branch under the department of personnel affairs, it doesn't have capabilities to design and implement the consistent and valuable education policy. Therefore, the development of defense education should begin with reinforcing the organization and functions of the MOD education branch. We need more experts on education( i.e. Ph.Ds of Education) and experienced specialties on defense education so that we could develop the overall guidance for military professional education. In addition, we need to enact the "defense or military education act" in a tentative name. This will ensure the legitimacy and continuity of defense education guidance initiated by the MOD. In a conclusion, it is senseless to think the blueprint for the Army College out until the preconditions mentioned above are matured. We must begin with rectifying the higher educational system.