Facts About Korea ; Education
South Korean students are exceptionally bright. They rank number two in the world when it comes to reading, they have a 93 percent graduation rate (whereas the US only has 77 percent), and they have the second best education system in the world. So how’d they get so brainy?
It all has to do with “hagwons.”Hagwons are privately run institutions and almost always open—even when public school is out. Kids attend these academies to study subjects ranging from math and science to taekwondo, ballet, and even belly dancing. The best teachers attract the most students, and some teachers are so popular that they earn millions of dollars a year. However, teachers who don’t perform well are put on probation.
It’s capitalism in action, and hagwons are money-making machines. Korean parents spend $17 billion a year on academies. Compare that to the $15 billion a year Americans spend on video games. In fact, hagwons are so successful that companies like Goldman Sachs and A.I.G. invest in the Korean education system.However, there’s a dark side to the hagwon system. The richest families get the best teachers while poorer students are stuck with sub-par tutors. Even worse, hagwon classes take place immediately after school so students are attending school twice a day and coming home mentally and physically exhausted.
Under President Lee Myung-bak, the Korean government actually banned hagwons from operating past 10:00 p.m., as students need to rest. This overwhelming drive to do well has to do with the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). If a student does well on the CSAT, they can attend a good college, but if they do poorly, they’ll be forced to attend a lousy school. With all this pressure, it’s no surprise that South Korea has a very high rate of student suicides. So are the benefits worth the drawbacks? Only the students can say.
South Korean students are exceptionally bright. They rank number two in the world when it comes to reading, they have a 93 percent graduation rate (whereas the US only has 77 percent), and they have the second best education system in the world. So how’d they get so brainy?
It all has to do with “hagwons.”Hagwons are privately run institutions and almost always open—even when public school is out. Kids attend these academies to study subjects ranging from math and science to taekwondo, ballet, and even belly dancing. The best teachers attract the most students, and some teachers are so popular that they earn millions of dollars a year. However, teachers who don’t perform well are put on probation.
It’s capitalism in action, and hagwons are money-making machines. Korean parents spend $17 billion a year on academies. Compare that to the $15 billion a year Americans spend on video games. In fact, hagwons are so successful that companies like Goldman Sachs and A.I.G. invest in the Korean education system.However, there’s a dark side to the hagwon system. The richest families get the best teachers while poorer students are stuck with sub-par tutors. Even worse, hagwon classes take place immediately after school so students are attending school twice a day and coming home mentally and physically exhausted.
Under President Lee Myung-bak, the Korean government actually banned hagwons from operating past 10:00 p.m., as students need to rest. This overwhelming drive to do well has to do with the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). If a student does well on the CSAT, they can attend a good college, but if they do poorly, they’ll be forced to attend a lousy school. With all this pressure, it’s no surprise that South Korea has a very high rate of student suicides. So are the benefits worth the drawbacks? Only the students can say.
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