▲ History textbooks

Since state-published history textbooks had a lot of problems such as the possibility to distort the history favorable to state and infringement of students' right to study in various ways, there had been a lot of claims to abolish them. The insistence to abolish them had been existed quiet for a long time, however, because of the former president Park, the plan was delayed again and again. Finally, they are planned to be abolished not until the inauguration of President Moon Jae-In. He had been promised to remove state-authorized textbooks as a pledge and he truly actualized it.

▲ Protest to oppose the history textbooks

In May, 2017, the government announced that they will abolish them as they decided to publish new history textbooks next year.

However, against the announcement of the government, people criticized that a year is too short to make new textbooks and cast a doubt upon the process of making new history textbooks. Criticized by people, The Ministry of Education decided to reflect the opinions of the public and delay the date to publish new history textbooks. They also said that they will introduce a range of new history textbooks written by private publishers in 2020 to guarantee students' right to study in various views.

▲ History textbooks

New history textbooks will be used in March, 2020. "The decision is intended to end the controversy surrounding state-authorized history textbooks and to unite the public in terms of education, "Education Minister Kim Sang-kon said during Wednesday's conference. The ministry added that he will hold some conferences to embrace opinions about the publication and reflect them on the publication. Because of the change of policy by the president, schools now can choose textbooks written by private publishers freely. The President Moon promised to change kinds of bad policies for public starting with it abolishing state-published history textbooks and publish new history textbooks by private publication.

August 18th, by 김서영