개정 평생교육법의 주요 내용과 법적 문제점

Abstract

By the emergence of a knowledge-based economic society has been required the consolidation of policy and legal systems that increase economic competitiveness and employment possibility. As part of efforts to meet such requirements, the legal system on lifelong education has been continuously improved and recently Lifelong Education Act has undergone a total revision. In accordance with the emergence of a knowledge-based economic society, the revised Lifelong Education Act aims at establishing an open education society and lifelong education society by diversifying and systemizing means and systems necessarily for lifelong education in order to secure the people's equal opportunity for lifelong education and rights to study and choose their learning. This article examined the main content and problems of the revised Lifelong Education Act on the basis of the followings: i) the definitions of lifelong education, ii) the status of Lifelong Education Act in the educational law system, iii) the founders of lifelong educational institutions and lifelong educational establishments. The revised Lifelong Education Act tried to improve the followings by rectifying the problems of the old Lifelong Education Act: the specification of Act provisions for its purpose and the definition of lifelong education, the consolidation of the system that promotes lifelong education, the unification of execution institutions and the diversification of lifelong education establishments. The revised Lifelong Education Act, however, has maintained the previous concept of lifelong education, failing to overcome the old Act's limitation in application scope and falling short of securing its status as the framework Act of other lifelong education-related Acts. Therefore, the revised Act has displayed limitations in comprehending various types of lifelong education activities, which have newly appeared along with social changes, and in adjusting individual Acts related to lifelong education. This requires seeking ways to improve such limitations.