Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones, left, and Korean Ambassador Kim Jae Shin sign the memorandum of agreement for the Special Program in Foreign Language. / Courtesy of Korean Embassy in the Philippines



By Lee Han-soo

Filipino public high school students will be able to learn Korean as a second language.

The addition of Korean to the Philippines Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL) comes after an agreement between the Philippines Department of Education and the Korean Embassy in the Philippines on June 21.

The pilot program will be offered at 10 high schools in Manila within the year.

It is then expected to expand throughout the nation.

"This is not a beginning. This is a continuation of very long years of fruitful relationship, including the field of education, between Korea and the Republic of the Philippines," said Philippines Education Secretary Leonor Briones.

The South Korean embassy in the Philippines said it hoped to strengthen the Korean language to "better respond" to Korean-related opportunities in local and international employment.

The SPFL, implemented in 2009, also includes German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and French.