“As students’ aversion to soldering is getting worse in the school curriculum, hardware education is being replaced with drawings or simulations. However, when students graduate and become developers, they feel inadequate and go to academies to learn soldering again. “It is a sad reality that the educational environment is better at school.”

A recent investigation by our newspaper into hardware education in the Department of Electronic Engineering at the College of Engineering revealed that students are having difficulties receiving soldering education.

One professor interviewed by our newspaper said that in order to provide proper hardware education, he had students implement actual circuits on PCBs through soldering, and then intentionally break the results, find errors, and fix the problems through soldering, but the participation of students was gradually decreasing.

This is because the problem-solving process is difficult and students hate soldering.

According to the professor, students tend to avoid lectures that involve practical skills such as soldering because their biggest goal is to earn credits.

The professor mentioned that the class participation rate is low because he does not give credit for not soldering, and he receives complaints from students in the course evaluations. Rather, it is the professors who are trying to provide students with a proper education who are being ignored by the students.

In the case of some professors, they often do not teach soldering and instead use drawings or simulations to teach it. There are even rumors among professors that soldering education is prohibited.

Accordingly, our newspaper directly inquired with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's Career and Vocational Education Division and found that there were no problems at all with soldering education.

Rather, in the case of specialized high schools, it was revealed that soldering education was implemented in 18 schools in Seoul in 2024 according to the curriculum and practical operation plan of each school in accordance with the 'Primary and Secondary Education Act' and the Ministry of Education's notice.

In addition, it was revealed that in order to ensure student safety during practical training, safety education, including safety rules in experiments and practice rooms, is mandatory during soldering practice by applying related guidelines according to the ‘Industrial Safety and Health Act’, ‘Act on Prevention and Compensation for School Safety Accidents’, ‘School Health Act’, and ‘Basic Student Safety Act’.

Additionally, the Office of Education announced that it is conducting work environment measurements in all laboratories where exposure to hazardous substances is a concern, including the electronics and soldering laboratories, as part of its health management support project, and that it is conducting special health checkups every year for students and teachers in those laboratories.

Accordingly, it is clear that soldering education in specialized high schools and universities is a legally permitted curriculum.

In line with this phenomenon, it was revealed that current new developers who graduated from electronic engineering departments and became hardware developers are more actively participating in training programs that include soldering as a hands-on activity, and are attending academies to improve their problem-solving skills that they lack in the hardware development process.

Rather, in terms of safety, such as competent professors and ventilation,Although the schools are superior, proper education is not being provided due to misinformation and student aversion.

Of course, lead is a heavy metal that can have serious effects on the human body and is therefore a substance that requires safety management.

Accordingly, they are ensuring safety and conducting education by wearing masks and installing ventilation devices, and they said that the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and provincial offices of education are regularly inspecting the safety management status of the practice rooms.

Despite these risks, the reason why soldering training must be conducted is because it is an essential course for accurately understanding hardware such as electronic circuits and electronic products.

Especially in the case of hardware, in order to solve various problems such as EMI (electromagnetic interference) and power design, you need to be able to directly assemble, disassemble, and change electronic components such as ICs, capacitors, and resistors on the actual PCB. If you can't solder, you can't even start in the first place.

Professors of electronic engineering agree that because hardware development and troubleshooting require many years of experience, it is important for students to be familiar with simulation tools, but they should also be familiar with the most basic soldering techniques so that they can freely modify circuits on actual PCBs.