President Lee Myung-Bak
South Korean President Myung-Bak Lee’s latest announcement of plans to battle the private education epidemic does not seem to be much of a boost for the 200 universities that signed a joint declaration to reform the college admissions process (see my previous post, “Universities Present a United Front“).
The reforms that President Lee discussed on June 3rd did not reveal any new measures unknown to the Korean public (Ji-Eun Seo, June 2009, “Lee Administration Reveals Reforms for Private Education“, JoongAng Daily). Many South Koreans have heard it all before:
- “cracking down on pricey after-school programs that are primarily focused on getting students into special-purpose high schools [international schools, science schools], which guarantee admission to top universities” (paragraph 5)
- forbidding foreign language high schools from applying written tests among other methods in assessing candidates, as written tests add more hours of studying for adolescents
- bring public English education into reality
- regular evaluation of public school teachers
Evaluating teachers’ performance regularly and diffusing English education in public schools nationwide do seem to be good measures for helping to restore faith in the public education system and therefore curbing the demand for private tutoring. However, there seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between the government’s reforms and what the university coalition claims its declaration will achieve.
An International School in Kyongki Province
The universities’ declaration seemed to signify hope for public schools that provide diverse, stimulating, and challenging learning environments—a hope that must garner strong support by the government. President Lee’s announcement merely suggests that some of the tools that parents have become accustomed to in getting their children into special-purpose schools will be taken away, but there is nothing that explicitly deals with the luster that special-purpose schools hold for parents. In fact, President Lee is determined to open 100 more special high schools during his term (Brian Lee, November 2008, “Market-Oriented Reforms Split Education Circles“, JoongAng Daily).
The key in tackling the over-education problem is to shift the Korean society’s values regarding what constitutes a complete life. I, of course, refer to alleviating the current pressure to follow “elite” academic and career paths. Unfortunately, President Lee does not seem to even acknowledge such pressure as a social problem and would rather see proliferation of special-purpose high schools (and their copycats) that will spur extra hours of studying in one way or another.
