South Korea’s education system is distorted by excessive competition and reliance on private education. Is it possible to reform education by normalizing public education and reducing private education?
Recently, a Swedish media outlet published an article. As the title suggests, the article criticizes the Korean education system. The author pointed out a number of problems with the Korean education system, including overzealousness and overwhelmingly high private education costs, and advised against using Korea as a model for education reform.
South Korea’s higher education system has many other problems. But the most fundamental problem is excessive competition. Students are not studying to autonomously design their future and achieve it, but to get into a good university, to score points, and to pay a lot of money for private education in order to be the winner in this fierce competition. In this process, children’s creativity and diversity are stifled and ignored, and conformity is demanded. Schools have long since become factories where knowledge is mass-produced rather than places where children’s aptitudes and interests are nurtured.
The reason behind this dysfunctional education system is the rapid modernization process in Korea. During the post-Korean War modernization, South Koreans used education as a tool for upward mobility as they worked their way out of abject poverty. As the caste system collapsed within a short period of time, education became the only way to gain social status. Getting into a good university and getting a good job became the sole goal of studying, and in the process of blindly pursuing this goal, the private education craze began and has continued to this day.
Thanks to the high level of education in Korea, Korean students have reached a higher level than students in other countries in fields such as math and science, and have been performing well in international academic achievement tests every year. In addition, South Koreans’ literacy rate has risen from 20% shortly after liberation to over 98% today, and South Korea’s university enrollment rate of 78% is much higher than the OECD average of 56%. At the same time, however, the average sleep duration of Korean middle and high school students is 5.6 hours, two hours less than the OECD average of 7.5 hours, and the cost of private education has always been the highest in the world. In other words, the quantity of education is overwhelmingly higher than in other countries, but the quality of education is relatively very low. It’s no wonder that Korean children’s life satisfaction is at the bottom of the list, and that the youth suicide rate is increasing every year. As a result, there is a growing realization that the education system needs to be reformed as soon as possible.
Although many politicians and education experts have proposed various education reform directions and alternatives, I believe that the best way to solve this problem is to normalize public education. The government should empower public education through various schemes, while educators should reform schools and curricula to ensure that students grow up healthy and with the right values.
The most important reason why public education should be strengthened is to give all children equal access to education. South Korea has always been the world’s top spender on private education. Although the extent of private education has become a problem, it is undeniable that the more privately educated children get better grades. However, the problem is that only children from families that can afford it can afford private education. Without access to private education, children from poorer families will be left behind in the competition and will eventually fail to survive in an education-oriented society and end up at the bottom of the ladder. In other words, private education creates a wealth transfer phenomenon. Furthermore, the high cost of private education is a huge burden on any family. Statistics show that on average, 60% of a family’s monthly income is spent on private education for children. It’s a shame that money that could be used to gain more experience and new knowledge is being wasted on repetitive, indoctrination-style education. If public education were stronger than private education, all children would have equal access to education from the same starting point, and the blind upward spiral of private education costs could be stopped.
Public education should be strengthened and improved at the same time. Empowering public education without reforming it is as bad as not reforming it at all. Public education needs to be improved in ways that bring it closer to the original meaning of “education. Instead of teaching students how to score points and beat the competition, schools should teach them how to make a living doing what they want to do. How can we do this specifically?
First, we need to teach students to be creative thinkers, rather than just cramming knowledge down their throats. There are many things that need to be changed, but one of them can be found in American classrooms. One of the biggest differences between American classrooms and Korea is that there are no right or wrong answers. In American classrooms, every student’s answer is recognized as a creative opinion and respected as a way to solve a problem. Because of this atmosphere, students aren’t afraid to say the wrong or incorrect answer and actively participate in discussions. This would never happen in a Korean classroom, where only one clear answer is accepted as the correct one. Other answers are dismissed and unappreciated. The atmosphere in Korean classrooms needs to be more inclusive. The diversity of each student should be recognized and maximized. In this way, creativity will naturally emerge. To create such an atmosphere, we need to change from a lecture-style classroom where the instructor imparts knowledge one-sidedly to a classroom where students have many opportunities to express their thoughts on what they are learning. This is how creative thinking skills are fostered.
Second, schools should help students identify their aptitudes and abilities and help them develop them further. This requires more vocational education that prepares students for employment rather than academic education that prepares them for university. Practical vocational education not only helps students figure out what kind of work they are good at, but also provides them with the knowledge and skills that are relevant to their future jobs, so they can get the job they want without having to go to college.
There are a number of counterarguments that can be raised against this idea of weakening private education and strengthening public education. The first argument is that public education is not a system that fits the characteristics of Korea. They believe that it is natural to emphasize competitiveness in education, and that it is because of this competitive education system that Korea has been able to develop to such a high level. They argue that if public education is strengthened and competition among children is reduced, national competitiveness will also be reduced. However, I don’t think we can sacrifice the quality of life of individual citizens for national competitiveness. Too many individuals are sacrificing too many things for the sake of national competitiveness: a good job, money, their parents’ old age, their own happiness, their family’s happiness, etc. Another problem they are overlooking is that the level of competition is not just moderate, but is leveling upwards over time. This is wasting people’s resources and efforts for nothing. If the country’s competitiveness is being maintained in such a way that is not right, the government should not uncritically defend the method, but rather explore other ways to increase the country’s competitiveness.
They may also think that high competitive fervor is not a problem in an era where competition is inevitable. They argue that in order to survive in the rapidly changing society of the digital age, we need to prepare for competition in a competitive structure in advance. They argue that the Korean education system has no choice but to foster competitive human resources to meet the needs of the times. However, they overlook the fact that the purpose of higher education and the professional life afterward are completely different. The purpose of higher education is to explore the future and build basic knowledge to prepare for it, so excessive competition is unnecessary. In society, however, the purpose of everything is to compete to develop better products and services and to make a profit. Therefore, competition is necessary and useful. And unfortunately, the content that Korean students are learning in this competitive environment is not yet meaningful enough to contribute to becoming a competitive worker who can survive in the digital age. They are not learning things that can actually help them do their future jobs, but rather just to get a grade.
In conclusion, education reform should be implemented as soon as possible by normalizing public education. However, it is important to keep in mind that the innocent students are the ones who suffer the most whenever the education system is changed, and each change in education policy comes at a huge social cost and effort, with serious repercussions. That’s why it’s so important to reform gradually and carefully, with a single-minded focus on realizing the original meaning of education, which has now faded.
What do we need to do to achieve education reform? First, we need to go through a process of collecting the opinions of teachers, parents, and students. This will allow us to create policies that reflect the voices of various stakeholders. Second, we need to strengthen the professionalism of teachers and develop educational programs to meet the diverse learning needs of students. Finally, we need to focus on improving the quality of public education by clearly distinguishing the roles of public and private education. Together, these efforts will open up a new future for Korean education.
