One of my English teachers back when I was a middle school student used to say education in South Korea is one of the things that we are fully authorized to reproach about. Her rationale was that we the students are the ones who are directly being affected by the government policies on the education.
And having been one of those "directly influenced" by the education policies for 10 years, I have a lot of things to talk about the problematic features of the South Korean education's current state.
The biggest problem of South Korean education is with the fact that most of the South Korean students' education is heavily dependent on private education. 3 trillion won, approximately 30% of the national budget, is yearly invested for private education tuition fee.
Called "Hagwons", the private education institutions in South Korea has been successful in taking a great part inside the students' education. Currently, almost every student in the country goes to at least one hagwon, and it is close to sheer impossibility to get a good grade in school without the help of those private education institutions.
These hagwons are especially concentrated on a region named "Gangnam" in Seoul. As a student who has lived in the Gangnam region for about 4 years before coming to KMLA, I will briefly illustrate the lives of normal South Korean "Gangnam" students.
The typical life of a Gangnam student begins approximately around 7 o'clock in the morning. After getting up, students put on their school uniform, have breakfast, and then leave for school.
An ordinary high (or middle) school in Korea finishes its daily curriculum around 5' o clock in the afternoon. The students, after being released from school, mostly go to "hagwons" until around 10 P.M. After coming back home around 10:30, the students spend the rest of the night doing assignments for the school and the hagwons. Majority of the Gangnam students go to sleep around 2 A.M. in the morning.
Though there is a little bit of extremity added as it is an example of Gangnam students' lives, the daily routine of a typical South Korean consisted of "school-hagwon-assignment-go to sleep" stays the same.
And the biggest problem with this way of life is, of course, the enormous amount of psychological and physical distress that students receive daily. The students are subjugated to extreme fatigue after being exploited all their soul by the everlasting cycle of school, hagwon, and assignment.
However, perhaps another colossal cost that the country has to pay for possessing a deformed education structure is the enlarging of the gap between the rich and the poor. And as the tuition fee that the students have to pay for going to hagwons is mostly high and could be very burdensome to poor, a lot of those students living in the rural sides or those in a plebeian household are unable to go to multiple hagwons, unlike those who are rich.
Such difference in the level of education between the rich and the poor, of course, leads to the expansion of the gap based on the difference in the position between the rich and the poor.
And the government, after receiving huge amount of complaints from the social minors, came up with a policy: to restrict the private education in South Korea. Based on this theme, the South Korean government came up with a series of acts that hindered the growth of private education, such as regulating the hagwons that teaches students after 10 P.M. or collecting more tax from hagwons.
Some might praise such behaviors to be minor-friendly and pursuing equality amongst students. However, I believe that these acts actually brings about larger amount of disadvantages compared to its benefits. Here's a reason why.
As explained above, the private education in South Korea takes up the majority of the students' education level. And if the government happens to hinder the growth of such important factor in students' lives, all they are doing is simply stopping the future leaders and scholars from being competent.
Plus, there is an error in the logic that the left-wing parties use when asking for policies hindering private education, which is that there should be an equality amongst students, no matter how they are born.
What they are failing to consider is the difference that evidently exists among students. There can be a student who is born with a physical or psychological ability best for figure skating, and there can be a student who is born with an aptitude for a plumber. And private education is the best way to satisfy such differences, as there are obvious limitations of the school education, for it is "universally" applied to all recipients. It was not the standardized school curriculum that brought about Kim Yuna or Ban Ki Moon; the private educations' help was there to maximize their innate talents. And to me, the idea of treating Kim Yuna and Ban Ki Moon "THE SAME WAY" just for mere "EQUALITY" seems to be nothing more than that of insanity.
Yes, I know. It's harsh, and it's unfair to see students being discriminated. But c'est la vie. Such is the way the life rolls, and maybe it's the job of the school to teach the students how discriminatory the society is before they are tossed into the harsh reality, unprepared.
And having been one of those "directly influenced" by the education policies for 10 years, I have a lot of things to talk about the problematic features of the South Korean education's current state.
The biggest problem of South Korean education is with the fact that most of the South Korean students' education is heavily dependent on private education. 3 trillion won, approximately 30% of the national budget, is yearly invested for private education tuition fee.
Called "Hagwons", the private education institutions in South Korea has been successful in taking a great part inside the students' education. Currently, almost every student in the country goes to at least one hagwon, and it is close to sheer impossibility to get a good grade in school without the help of those private education institutions.
These hagwons are especially concentrated on a region named "Gangnam" in Seoul. As a student who has lived in the Gangnam region for about 4 years before coming to KMLA, I will briefly illustrate the lives of normal South Korean "Gangnam" students.
The typical life of a Gangnam student begins approximately around 7 o'clock in the morning. After getting up, students put on their school uniform, have breakfast, and then leave for school.
An ordinary high (or middle) school in Korea finishes its daily curriculum around 5' o clock in the afternoon. The students, after being released from school, mostly go to "hagwons" until around 10 P.M. After coming back home around 10:30, the students spend the rest of the night doing assignments for the school and the hagwons. Majority of the Gangnam students go to sleep around 2 A.M. in the morning.
Though there is a little bit of extremity added as it is an example of Gangnam students' lives, the daily routine of a typical South Korean consisted of "school-hagwon-assignment-go to sleep" stays the same.
And the biggest problem with this way of life is, of course, the enormous amount of psychological and physical distress that students receive daily. The students are subjugated to extreme fatigue after being exploited all their soul by the everlasting cycle of school, hagwon, and assignment.
However, perhaps another colossal cost that the country has to pay for possessing a deformed education structure is the enlarging of the gap between the rich and the poor. And as the tuition fee that the students have to pay for going to hagwons is mostly high and could be very burdensome to poor, a lot of those students living in the rural sides or those in a plebeian household are unable to go to multiple hagwons, unlike those who are rich.
Such difference in the level of education between the rich and the poor, of course, leads to the expansion of the gap based on the difference in the position between the rich and the poor.
And the government, after receiving huge amount of complaints from the social minors, came up with a policy: to restrict the private education in South Korea. Based on this theme, the South Korean government came up with a series of acts that hindered the growth of private education, such as regulating the hagwons that teaches students after 10 P.M. or collecting more tax from hagwons.
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| The head of the ministry of education, science, and technology, Lee Ju Ho |
As explained above, the private education in South Korea takes up the majority of the students' education level. And if the government happens to hinder the growth of such important factor in students' lives, all they are doing is simply stopping the future leaders and scholars from being competent.
Plus, there is an error in the logic that the left-wing parties use when asking for policies hindering private education, which is that there should be an equality amongst students, no matter how they are born.
What they are failing to consider is the difference that evidently exists among students. There can be a student who is born with a physical or psychological ability best for figure skating, and there can be a student who is born with an aptitude for a plumber. And private education is the best way to satisfy such differences, as there are obvious limitations of the school education, for it is "universally" applied to all recipients. It was not the standardized school curriculum that brought about Kim Yuna or Ban Ki Moon; the private educations' help was there to maximize their innate talents. And to me, the idea of treating Kim Yuna and Ban Ki Moon "THE SAME WAY" just for mere "EQUALITY" seems to be nothing more than that of insanity.
Yes, I know. It's harsh, and it's unfair to see students being discriminated. But c'est la vie. Such is the way the life rolls, and maybe it's the job of the school to teach the students how discriminatory the society is before they are tossed into the harsh reality, unprepared.
Almost a continuation of the Robinson essay. I Interesting views - kind of Darwinist! But also kind of realistic. In my opinion, there are far too many hakwons out there, and some are not worth anything - and do not offer any advantage what-so-ever. As a former freelancer who worked for an agency, it was my job to visit many english hakwons, and I felt parents were mostly wasting money. Kids would be better off at home enjoying themselves and relaxing, and quality of quantity of education is something parents should consider. A happy student will retain much more information than a miserable drone. So maybe the government should regulate how much time a student is allowed to attend a hakwon - and all students should be registered in a system that regulates it. Sounds impossible, and it probably is. It would simply result in "black market education." Interesting debate.
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