First-year middle school students in South Korea will have an exam-free semester this year to participate in career-experience programs.
 
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the Education Ministry reported its plans for the free semester while reviewing the program's operation last year.
 
Introduced in 2016, the free semester program is designed to allow early career exposure for middle school students either in the first or second semester of the freshman year or in the second semester of the sophomore year. 
 
Approximately 450-thousand students from three-thousand-208 middle schools nationwide are expected to join the program this year.