The flip side of South Korea’s elite schools

South Korea’s school system is often celebrated internationally. Concurrently, the pursuit of attaining high grades creates problems such as high suicide statistics. Now voices are raised to reform the education system.

Text: Johan Augustin, Photo: Jonas Gratzer

“Girls be ambitious” is written on one of the walls of Inmyung Girls’ High School, located in Seoul’s metropolitan area of Incheon. In one classroom, teacher Chloe Kwak gives a lesson in English to the students who listen with complete focus.
“The students are very disciplined. There is no talk in the classroom and everyone has to hand in their mobile before the class starts,” Chloe Kwak, who has worked as a teacher for eleven years, says.
And the word discipline is something that South Koreans value exceptionally. Korean teachers still have the authority over students and control their behaviour.
“Most students are doing well. Otherwise, they know that they will receive remarks in their evaluation reports,” Chloe Kwak says.
South Korea, along with other East Asian countries, has long been at the forefront in the Pisa tests (Program for International Student Assessment), or the international education rankings. The Pisa assessments evaluate the achievements of 15-year-olds in OECD-countries. Long hours of studying and learning texts ahead of the tests, has been the magic formula for getting high grades, thus the way to enter the top universities. For many families, a good education means that their children can get favourable employment, better pay, and the opportunity to climb the social ladder. At the same time – the competition helps creating an increasing level of stress among the students. 19-year-old Sally Kong is one of the students in the classroom at Inmyung Girls’ High School, and she agrees that the country’s school system is getting increasingly harsh. According to Sally Kong “it’s all about competition” and since South Korea doesn’t have any natural resources, she says, the country must rely on its population. But, according to her, memorizing as much as possible is not the most efficient way of studying.
“We learn so much from the textbooks which we then forget.”
Do you find the current school system stressful?
“Yes, but I’m getting used to twelve hour-school days. It was worse in the beginning when I wasn’t used to it,” she says.
“It’s all about getting good grades. We don’t learn how to become creative thinkers.”

While the school results create international recognition, the South Korean education system begins to raise more criticism internally. One of the critics is Hyunsu Hwang. He is an English teacher at Inmyung Girls’ High School, and has over twenty years experience in the profession. Hyunsu Hwang is also the international director of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU). Currently there are about 400 000 teachers in South Korea and about 70 000 of them are KTU-members. During the Korean military regimes, “schools were just centres of propaganda” Hyunsu Hwang says, where teachers weren’t allowed to speak about the ruling regime. This changed in 1989 when KTU, which is also called the Jeongyojo, was formed and “the teachers rejected their role as puppets controlled by the dictatorship.”
As a result, the government instantly made the KTU illegal, and hundreds of union-members were arrested and imprisoned. It took ten years, until 1999 – before KTU was recognised as a legal union. Before the union was established the schools were often a place for bribes, according to Hyunsu Hwang. It was common for parents to give money to teachers – in order for them to increase the scores and grades of the students.
“I’ve never met either students or teachers who’ve said that our system is of high quality or effective.”
“Most are dissatisfied with our system,” Hyunsu Hwang says.
South Korea is often described as the economic miracle that managed to bounce back after the Korean War, which ended 65 years ago, and since then the country has developed into one of the world’s strongest economies. Some claim that the prosperity is due to a stringent education system; a statement rejected by Hyunsu Hwang – who says that the country’s growth comes from “people’s will to overcome poverty, together with state economic development”.
More people have started to question the Pisa tests, and whether they are legitimate.
“The Pisa test scores don’t reflect education quality, only the test results,” Hyunsu Hwang says, and it’s therefore “necessary to see what’s hidden behind the scores”.
“Nowadays competition is already starting in kindergarten. Primary school is a battlefield in achieving the best results.”

Innovative learning
His wife, Jung A-Park, who works as a teacher at the elementary school Incheon Gawon, is visiting her husband’s school for the day. Her school, located in the greater Seoul area, is one of approximately one hundred innovative schools in South Korea, where the classes, unlike the standardised same-gender classes, are coeducational, and where the traditional hierarchical system has been replaced with a more autonomous system. Twenty years ago the proportion of coeducational schools was about five per cent, which since has increased by ten per cent.
“In the innovative schools everyone is alike. Each student and teacher is a leader. When problems arise, we solve them through discussions and workshops,” Jung A-Park explains. Another important distinction between conventional and innovative schools is, according to Jung A-Park, the workload – which is considerably smaller in innovative schools – as designated people for the most part look after the administrative work.
“Teachers can focus on being teachers,” she says.
“The focus is on teaching the students as much as possible, not for them achieving the highest grades.”
Jung A-Park hopes that the innovative school system escalates to more schools.
“It will take time, but our schools must get a new focus!”

High suicide rates
Apart from creating stressful environments the education system leads to one of the highest number of suicides in the world.
The flip side of the elite schools is that many adolescents don’t see any other way – when failing their tests – than to end their own lives. South Korea still tops the suicide rates. According to WHO, it is still the world’s forth highest among the 183 countries surveyed, and within the OECD-countries it has the highest rate with 28,4 suicides per 100 000 population. It continues to be the leading cause of death among teens and the forth-largest cause of death in the country. That is almost double the rate of 14,8 suicides per 100,000 in the year 2000. The main reasons for students committing suicide is stress and overall pressure from failing tests and not achieving high scores. Suicidal high school students report that their biggest issues are difficulties with their career choice, low academic achievement, the high amount of academic work and the lack of rest. A major trigger of suicide attempts also comes from receiving results on the university entrance exam. However, stress is not a unique factor only to South Korea; countries like Japan and Singapore also face stressful environments, but still don’t experience as high suicide numbers as South Korea. Every day about 40 people commit suicide in South Korea. The government has recently managed to bring down the rates, mainly due to restricting access to agricultural chemicals, which is widely used to commit suicide, and the government further aims to lower the suicide rate to 17 per 100, 000 by 2022. Next to stress and failing the tests, the importance of family, the social stigma of actually receiving treatment for mental illness, and the shame attached to seeking professional help, is also behind the high numbers. Alcoholism is another widespread problem, and the country tops the list of consumers of hard liquor; on average a Korean adult drinks 14 shots a week. Drinking is looked upon as a way to relax – in a society where hard work and long hours is normality. Alcohol is more socially acceptable than treatment of mental illnesses, even though the abuse cause society thousands of annual deaths, and nearly half of those trying to commit suicide do so while intoxicated.

Low fertility affects the school system
Another considerable problem in the South Korean society is the low fertility rate, which last year stood at 1,05, among the world’s lowest, and far below the replacement level at 2,1, which is needed to sustain a population. In Seoul the rate is even lower at 0,84. As the population is ageing fast, and the number of children is decreasing, the effect has started to take its toll on the school system – since the 1980s thousands of schools have closed or are in the process of doing so.
“Korean parents spend a large share of their pay on their children’s private education. In turn, their children have realised how expensive it is to have kids, and don’t want their own,” English teacher Hyunsu Hwang says.
“Many simply cannot afford it.”
The gender gap is another factor. Men still make more on average than women, so creating a family is not first priority for South Korean women who are more educated than their counterpart, and want to succeed in their careers. The government has realised the great hurdle facing the country, and have recently pledged to work towards even out gender inequalities, to improve childcare and support single parents – overall spending more on family benefits.

Long hours
The school take up most of the wake time in the students’ lives. In high school, which is the most extreme part, students spend between twelve and fifteen hours at school on the weekdays, and many study over the weekends. A typical day in high school can be divided into three parts: scheduled class between 8.30 am and 4 pm, followed by extra classes between 4 and 6 pm. Self-studies continue between 7 and 10 pm. Usually the school day doesn’t end there. Many students go on to private schools, so called hagwons, or study with their private teachers at home.
“Many won’t go to bed until 2 am. Students fall asleep during the classes, due to sleep deprivation, Hyunsu Hwang,” says.
The problem is frequently described as “South Korea’s education fever”. Competition is razor sharp in the pursuit of the best international universities, and for the top elite schools within the country. After Chinese and Indian students, South Koreans constitute the third largest group at American universities, and it’s common with Korean professors at the world’s foremost universities. In the neighbourhoods surrounding Inmyung Girls’ High School, hagwons advertise subjects such as English and Maths on big billboards.
“From the outside we’re looked upon as a modern country, but people are unhappy,” Hyunsu Hwang explains as he leads he way through the neighbourhood.
“Study, work and get married is our set model,” Hyunsu Hwang says as we enter the door of Etoos Hagwon. The private institute is for students who need to improve their scores – in preparation for higher education – with the assistance of private mentors. Etoos Hagwon is open 363 days in a year, with only two holidays. Through legislation, the government prohibits hagwons to operate after 10 pm, since studies have found that on average high school students only sleep little over five hours a night. Twenty-one-year-old Shim Ei Joon spends most of his wake time in one of the classrooms. Shim Ei Joon is leaning over note pads and books, and he describes his high school grades as “average” as he has spent the last two years trying to improve his grades. Next year he hopes to apply for the country’s three top universities in order to eventually become an engineer.
He studies fifteen hours on weekdays and thirteen hours on the weekends.
“I study until 10.30 at night and start 7 the next morning”, Shim Ei Joon says.
Do you have any free time?
“No I’m here all the wake time.”
If he still doesn’t meet the admission requirements of the universities, Shim Ei Joon will have to apply for universities with lower rankings.
“It’s obviously a stress moment, I don’t want to fail!”
At the entrance of Etoos Hagwon – the owner May Sung overviews TV-screens monitoring the students – to make sure they don’t watch movies or surf the internet. She is aware of what the competition leads to.
“Stress for everyone involved. Parents call me, complaining that they’re stressed over their childrens´studies,” May Sung says.
What do you think about South Korea’s education system?
“Even though I do this for a living, I don’t think it’s a good system. We are still stuck with the pattern from the old generation,” May Sung says.
The most dreadful test, the one every high school student fears, is called the Suneung which is the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Students take the eight-hour standardised test; an exam for university or college admission, in one day. Even the authorities take the Suneung very seriously, flights are rerouted or planes grounded in order not to distract the students during the most important test in their lives. The tests include subjects such as English, Korean language, Maths, science and history. The test is extremely important for the students and their families, since the test scores will determine which university students can attend and in the long run – what profession they can pursue.

Changing the system
But winds of change are blowing through the country. A person who works to reform the school system is Seoul’s newly elected superintendent Heeyeon Cho. When SCMP meets Heeyeon Cho he’s in the final stages of the election campaign and he speaks before a crowd in the city. His aim is to move away from the repetitive “drilling” way of learning and instead invest more in the innovative school system, where “every individual is in focus”.
“We focus too much on scores and memorizing texts. I want to increase the number of municipal schools, and reduce the number of hagwons – thereby reducing private power which only reaches privileged families who can afford to spend a lot on education,” he explains.
Much of the international cheer for the country’s education system is due to the excellent performing of the Pisa tests.
Apart from other East Asian countries, Finland has performed well in the Pisa assessments and the country has been praised internationally for emphasising on the individual’s own needs. It’s a good example, according to Heeyeon Cho, of a country that combines teaching with the individual’s own decision making.
“Many of our teachers have visited Finland and the Scandinavian countries. They are good role models that we should can take after”.
What is the biggest obstacle in changing the school system in South Korea?
“The current system constitutes of students who are drilled to memorize as much as possible.”
“Our children have become learning machines. This has to stop!”

Innovative drama
Innovative classes take on different forms, and at highly prestigious Seoul Foreign School, the majority of the more than 1400 students learn drama. American drama teacher John Black has been working at the international private school for nine years – where he teaches drama to students in grade 4 to 12.
“Most of the students are on stage at least once a year,” John Black says as he walks across the lavish wooden stage, where about 40 productions are set up annually. He underscores the importance of alternative classes in a country where students “are programmed to memorise texts and subjects”.
John Black explains that many of his students attend hagwons after school, and have huge expectations to continue their studies in Europe or North America.
“We want to differentiate ourselves from other schools,” he says.
“As a drama teacher I try to make students learn how to think more freely”.