"Elite Education"

I stumbled across an Asia Times article ("Life and Death Exams in South Korea," by James Card) about South Korea's obsession with education, specifically in regards to the examination system that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into an elite university, such as the so-called SKY schools; Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsey University- the top three most elite and prestigious institutions in the country.

The article examines the pressures of doing well on the CSAT, or College Scholastic Ability Test, which is only admnistered one day of the entire year. I won't comment on the actual test or rituals that occur prior to the test day (let's not talk about suicide rates...), however, I will comment on the nation's obsession with pouring in hundreds to thousands of dollars into private tutoring or taking extra classes a 'hagwons' or private institutions where students spend hours after school essentially 'cramming' more information into their saturated brains.

The article states that the average middle-class Korean family will spend about USD $700-1,000 a month going to tutoring and hagwon lessons... which calculates to approximately USD $6 billion in total private education costs PER YEAR- the HIGHEST of all OECD (Organization for Economic Coorporation and Deveopment) countries.

Also according to a survey in 2004, "South Korea has the most CROWDED classrooms of all OECD countries, with an average of 37.1 students per class compared to the OECD average of 23.7."

My classes have an average of 38-42 students. It's exhausting because I honestly spend about 1/3 of class time controlling the noise and managing the class.

My question is this- for the astranomical of money invested in extra classes, on top of long hours at school (middle school and high school), is the average academic scores (namely in English, Math, and Science) higher than other OECD countries?
South Korea actually ranks one of the lowest on the TOEIC test.

AH-HA. The article states that "most hagwons are run by people who can't speak English," which also proves the argument that the ESL programs in South Korea (Fulbright NOT included) are notorious for being one of the most "corrupt and incompetent for foreign English teachers, with numerous complaints of extortion, scams and overall educator malfeasance."

(My two host-siblings attend hagwons everyday from 3-4 hours. Umm.. I don't know if they really do that much studying because thier grades have not improved all year. ) Are they really studying?

I dug a little deeper and wanted to learn more about the general education system in South Korea and when South Korea's obession with education really began.

To save you from a long dry history lesson, I wanted to mention that the nation's ideology of "Elite Education" stemmed from centuries old Confucian philosophy and examination system which entered the country from China about 15 centuries ago! Namely, during the Joseon (or Chosun) dynasty (1392-1910), the examination system became pretty much the only route for people to become a government official (same as in Japan and China during the same time.) Thus, this examination system was ingrained in society and culture, and even today, is seen as a means of social status and selecting only the elite or educated to prosper.

For those of you who are not familiar with Confucianism, it basically has been the major factor that explains not only educational success, but economic success of the Asia 5 dragons ( aka Asian Tigers); Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea.
They are:
1) Hierarchical relationship
2) The family system
3) Zen, meaning benevolence
4) Emphasis on education.


So it's a bit clearer (at least for me) to understand that what feuls the nation's drive for education. Although I hate to say this- but Korean students, in general, still by far, have one of the lowest English conversation and proficiency rates of Asian countries.

The reason I wrote this now, instead of last July, is because after almost one year of teaching English in a middle school, I debate whether there has been any progress, whatsoever, among my students. If anything, I hope that they learned to be more confident speaking English. Sure, they can learn songs and role-plays at hagwons, but at least they have learned to SPEAK UP. One trend I noticed all year, is the lack of confidence my students had speaking English, not only to me, but even to their Korean-English teachers. I have experienced days of frustration and anger, not at my students, but at the educational system (which I believe to be extremely flawed on multiple levels..). Despite spending hours upon hours in schools and wasting money on useless afterschool lessons, these kids have no social lives, don't spend time on extra-curricual or social building activities, sleep under 5 hours, and with the little free time they have, spend it text messaging or playing computer games all night long. Isn't it ironic? With amount of hourse spent "studying" (or staring off into space), Korean students (as I recall) spend the MOST time on the cell phone texting friends or playing computer games online.

I'll never understand that.

Anways... on with learning!