Education minister Park Soon-ae says she will prepare a concrete blueprint on lowering the school starting age from six to five years old after building social consensus on the matter. 

In a press conference Monday, Park addressed concerns raised after the policy plan was revealed late last week, explaining that she had included it in her policy briefing to the president with the intention of helping the children grow under a system in which the state takes responsibility for their education.

She underlined that policies are not perfected when they are first announced, and that the social consensus building process will begin now as the government listens to the opinions of parents and various experts.

Minister Park said the plan to lower the school starting age from 2025 is a possibility and not a finalized policy, and promised to gather diverse views before presenting a detailed plan by the end of the year.