The number of multicultural students in South Korea has risen by more than 10-fold in the past decade, data showed Sunday.

According to data from the Ministry of Education, 99,186 multicultural children are currently studying at elementary, middle and high schools in the country, accounting for 1.68 percent of the overall student population.

In 2006, there were 9,389 multicultural students who accounted for 0.12 percent of the total.

"Considering the decline in the number of school-aged children and the fact that some 120,000 multicultural children are below six, multicultural students will make up increasingly larger shares of the overall student population," a ministry official said.

Of the multicultural students, 24.2 percent had a Vietnamese parent, followed by 21.3 percent with a Chinese parent, 13 percent with a Japanese parent, 12.4 percent with a Filipino parent and 12.4 percent with a Chinese parent of Korean ethnicity, the data showed.

On Friday, the ministry will open a two-day festival at the KINTEX exhibition center in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, to evaluate the past and future of education for multicultural students.

It will be attended by representatives of the ministry, other relevant government departments, universities, businesses and schools, who will share their teaching resources and discuss ways to improve education for multicultural children.

There will also be an awards ceremony for people who have contributed to improving public perception of multicultural families. (Yonhap)