The South Korean government plans to lower the minimum age for elementary school students to go to school by one year. If everything goes as planned, the lowering of school ages will be phased in over four years.

The Ministry of Education is working on a number of scenarios, but the most likely plan that they are going to carry out is the 25 percent rule. It's a plan to enroll 25 percent of children early each year for four straight years.

In this case, those born in 2018 and January to March 2019 will be enrolled in schools in 2025; and those born from April to December 2019 and January to June 2020 will be enrolled in 2026.

Since this proposal, there's been a lot of opposition from teachers and parents. Even now, legally, those born early in the year can still enter elementary school a year earlier. But, the numbers are decreasing because the parents do not want to send their kids to school at such an early age.

They point out that a one year gap is still huge when they are starting school, so starting school at the age of 5 doesn't have a lot of benefits considering the characteristics of early childhood development.

The government should take a cautious approach to this matter as it is related to our children's 12 years of education and eventually their whole life.

L.L.F reporter Min-a Lee