Point of View on Education

 Living in South Africa, one of the things that my friends thought was weird was how competitive the education system is in Korea. When I talked to their parents, I could see that Korean parents care about the education of their children much more than the ones in other countries. I wanted to find out the reason behind it. 

There even was a TV series named "Sky Castle" which showed how serious Korean parents are, although it had some exaggeration. There have been lots of opinions on this series saying that it's too fake or provocative but I think that it was a good way to show the stress that students and parents are experiencing in Korea because of education.

It was after Korean War that people started to invest in their children's education. Since people were having a hard time and they knew education will help to combat poverty, this was why. With a rapidly growing economy, being able to get a high position within society got crucial in order to succeed and this also led to high competitiveness in education. 

In Korea, there is an institute called "Hagwon" which provides private education else than public education from school. My friends always used to go to hagwon after school and I had no one left to play with. They stayed in the hagwon until late at night which I couldn't understand why. My parents didn't force me to go to hagwon since they thought I will experience too much stress. Without experiencing too much pressure, I then moved to South Africa.

It was weird to see everyone participate in extramural after school without going to hagwon. There was much more homework in SA since students didn't have a workload from hagwon. It was only in Grade 9-10 when I could see people attending private tutoring but it was not as intense in Korea. It was a cultural shock.

When I tell my friends about this system in Korea and how late the students go to bed, they always tell me that's torture. I also think so but that's how the country works and will be working for a while. When I tell my friends' parents about how Korean parents are involved with their children's education, they also seem quite surprised. 

The ultimate goal for most students and parents seems to be to get into a good university so that their future is guaranteed. It is true that the possibility of a better life increases with entering a good university but nowadays, with a lack of jobs and society wanting creativity else than academic abilities, it can't be said that studying hard is the only way to be successful. The biggest problem with this intense education system is that students get too much stress. According to statistics, the happiness level in Korea compared to other OECD countries rank the lowest and the studies take a huge part in this, about 40%. Although Korean students are playing an active role in various academic competitions around the world, I don't think the amount of stress can be compensated for those. 

I hope this trend of education changes in the next few generations as the generation who experienced extreme stress tries to make the situation right. 


Reference

https://www.newsquest.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=75120

https://www.mk.co.kr/news/economy/view/2019/12/1079488/

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