It seems that concerned parents and education experts in South Korea have taken matters into their own hands to combat the rigid educational system and excessive academic pressures that children face. Alternative schools have been rising in popularity since the mid-1990′s, according to The Chosun Ilbo newspaper (September 2004; October 2005), and grew to more than 100 across the country by 2005.

What’s interesting here is that concerned individual members and groups in society saw what used to be considered a “plan B” for troubled students as a potential venue for providing a wider variety of students (including the gifted ones) with an educational style that is more tailored to each student’s needs. These alternative schools are designed to foster individuality, mitigate pressures from “cram schools” (see previous post), encourage more interaction between students and nature, and heaven forbid—NOT idealize the standardized university entrance exam as the end-all and be-all. The keyword for parents who send their children to alternative schools is HAPPINESS, which in this case encompasses enriched education and focusing on individual strengths and weaknesses.

A history field trip to the Baek-Du Mountain near the China-North Korea border, by a class from the Handeul alternative school.

A history field trip to the Baek-Du Mountain near the China-North Korea border, by a class from the Handeul alternative school.

These messages from a career workshop include “grow confidence” and “hope”—a contrast to phrases like “Happiness is in the order of grades” that many teens in public schools post above their desks.

These messages from a career workshop include “grow confidence” and “hope”—a contrast to phrases like “Happiness is in the order of grades” that many teens in public schools post above their desks.

This is a big risk that these parents and educators are taking—one that will hopefully pay off in the forms of massive influence on the public education system, improved mental well-being of youth, and even a healthy reduction in the pressure to perform exerted by the Korean society.

One could argue that there is plenty of reason to be optimistic. After all, a bill was passed in 2005 in the National Assembly to “absorb the alternative programs into the framework of the formal education system” (October 2005, The Chosun Ilbo). Further, the recently elected President Myung-Bak Lee vowed to bring revolutionary changes to the standardized university entrance exam (Na, May 2009, “Korea to Hike Spending on Public Education“, The Korea Times). The Education Ministry has even launched a program to help alleviate the dependence on cram schools and tutoring by providing selected schools with subsidies to enhance the quality of public education (Ji-Eun Seo, May 2009, “Government to Establish ‘Hagwon-Free’ Schools“, JoongAng Daily).

A skeptic on the other hand might counter that changes to Korea’s mainstream education system are unlikely to occur anytime soon, despite the growing niche for alternative education: Four years after The Chosun Ilbo’s article on alternative education was published, the pressure on public school teachers and tutors alike to produce machine-like minds that can spew out answers to standardized tests is still prevalent (as evidenced by late-night cram sessions discussed in the previous post). The commitment to reform of the university entrance exam was a promise made by several administrations prior to President Lee. Subsidizing public schools may be a step toward quality improvement, but the Education Ministry’s refusal to weigh in on where schools will spend the funds probably means that the root cause—the pressure to learn and perform in the Korean culture—will not be dealt with on a large scale. If the entrance exam and the way universities select candidates do not change soon, how much longer will parents be able to hold onto the motivation to send their children to schools that do not adhere to the norm?

Despite my doubts, I admit that alternative schools are a positive step in challenging the deep-seated notion that success = elite schools = pressure to spend all waking hours in a classroom and excel on standardized exams. Frankly, it is not a step I would have thought possible in such a collectivistic society as Korea. Now, if only this alternative system would go mainstream…

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