South Korea plans to conduct a pilot program to use digital textbooks at hundreds of elementary and middle schools around the country during the 2014 school year, the education ministry said Wednesday.

Digital social studies and science textbooks are being developed for third- and fourth-year students of elementary schools and first- or second-year middle school students, it said.

Some 150 elementary and 300 middle schools around the country have been chosen to use the new type of textbooks in the 2014 school year, the ministry said.

Officials expect the e-books will help students more easily understand what they are learning with terminology dictionaries, relevant video clips, test questions and materials for in-depth and compensatory learning in addition to content from existing print-version textbooks.

Students can download digital textbooks using PCs or smart devices in classrooms equipped with a wireless Internet network, according to the ministry.

The authority said it will decide in the first half of next year whether to expand the use to other schools after 2015, based on the result of the test run and public opinions. (Yonhap News)