A North-South divide in classrooms of Seoul
Research keeps confirming that the quality of education in Seoul is more a factor of neighborhood than a student’s qualifications.A report analyzing academic records of Seoul’s 308 middle schools highlighted a growing regional disparity between northern and southern areas of the capital city.
South of the Han is generally perceived as better-off than the northern areas, with higher quality schools and teachers.
The JoongAng Ilbo analyzed data on Seoul’s 308 middle schools’ academic records from 2012 provided by the Korea Education and Research Information Service.
The best example of the regional disparity is poor grades in math and where they are seen most.
It turns out that 46.3 percent, or 143 middle schools in Seoul, have 7th grade classes in which 40 percent of the students get Es in math, the lowest passing grade. Certain districts had far more of those classes, especially north of the Han.
For example, 61.5 percent of the middle school students in Jungnang District, northern Seoul, got Es in math while the figure for Seongdong District, also in the north, was 75 percent.
The figures are far lower for schools south of the river.
Northern schools are known for unruliness.
“Classes don’t go smoothly because teachers are busy instructing students to stop making noise,” said a 14-year-old girl who attends a middle school in northern Gangbuk District.
A student in Jungnang District, northern Seoul, echoed the complaint.
“If someone brings up a topic that’s not related to the class, many of my classmates start talking about that,” said a 13-year-old girl.
Teachers at relatively bad schools say parents north of the Han are less involved in their children’s education.
“In our school, 36 percent of the students receive some form of financial aid from the government because of their parents’ low incomes,” said a vice principal of a middle school in northern Seoul.
“Kids don’t even show their transcripts to their parents and many of the parents don’t pay much attention,” he said.
“Many students’ situations are not good,” said a teacher at a middle school in the northern part of Seoul. “Most are from low-income families. If I have meetings with 30 parents, only four or five of them actually care about their children’s academic activities.”
But other problems exist in the running of the schools.
When asked about the high percentage of bad math grades, a vice principal of a middle school in northern Seoul said that he didn’t know that 55.4 percent of his school’s students got Es in math.
“I just didn’t notice that many students find it hard to learn math,” the vice principal said.
In contrast, the atmosphere at Daecheong Middle School, located in affluent Daechi-dong, Gangnam District, was like a different world. In classes of the 7th grade, there was no one dozing off or tinkering with smartphones.
“Teachers collect our cell phones in the morning,” said a 14-year-old girl surnamed Chae, “so it’s hard to imagine a student using a cell phone during class. If someone tries to disrupt the class or start chatting, the other students intervene.”
Daecheong Middle School has the lowest percentage of E grades in English among the surveyed middle schools.
Education Professor Hong Hoo-jo of Korea University pointed out that neglect is more common in middle schools and it produces more under-achievers.
“High-schoolers usually get full attention from parents and teachers because of the all-important college entrance exams,” he said.
“But people tend to be negligent about under-performers in primary or secondary schools. The government should come up with plans to systematically help those students.”
Some analysts said the way students’ grades are evaluated causes further disparities among schools.
The Ministry of Education ordered middle schools nationwide to scrap rankings of students’ academic achievements and instead adopt absolute criteria from last year.
The ministry intended to ease the burden on students by ending hierarchical rankings.
But some parents and students wonder whether some schools purposely give easy tests to get more students into higher grade levels.
“I heard a few schools in Gangnam District have more than 40 percent of the entire student body scoring As,” said Uhm Soo-young, 39, who has a 15-year-old child. “I don’t think the schools grade scores impartially.”
By Kim Sung-tak [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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