[CARD NEWS] Welcome to a Korean “Hagwon” / British students experience Korean education
Korean students who study until 3 a.m. vs Welsh students who go home at 3 p.m.
The education system of Wales in Great Britain always falls behind according to the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), while South Korea comes out on top.
Three Welsh teenagers swapped their school life for that of Korea to experience a high performing country’s education system.
* The PISA is an international study by OECD members which aims to evaluate the world’s education systems.
2) Ewan Miles / “I want go to Korea because I want to know why they’re doing so much better in education than we are and what they have we don’t.”
The Welsh teenagers wondered about the secrets of South Korean students, as they always achieve top academic performance.
3) An early start to school was the first surprise out of many that the Welsh students experienced. The British teenagers in their school uniforms began their Korean school life when they arrived at a high school in Gangnam, an affluent district of Seoul.
4) The Welsh kids were astounded again after finding out that Korean students usually study 14 to 16 hours a day, from early in the morning until 10 at night. “Self-study back at school?”
5) “I should be awake and study until 10, but I stopped a little earlier. I’m so tired.”
Sarah, who pushed herself hard to match ungodly schedule of Korean students, eventually gave up.
6) What startled Ewan when he stepped into a public library he visited with his host Young-chan (16) was the long queue of students outside a study room, even though it was late at night.
Ewan Mile “I was amazed that so many people were all in their ones, and in fact they were extremely silent. There was even a kid less than about ten years old. Surprising, but shows the work ethic that Korean people have.”
7) Long hours of studying naturally results in outstanding academic performance. Only 15 minutes were enough for Korean students to finish the British math exam, which would normally take 60 minutes for English students to finish.
8) Tommy “I was the only one who raised my hand when we were asked if we found the test hard. It was astounding.”
Tommy gaped for a while, witnessing the Korea students’ high proficiency in mathematics.
9) The BBC let British students experience Korean-style education and analyzed the system from the eyes of the students.
10) Tommy “I felt the teachers deliver pieces of knowledge and let the students just remember those. I think learning here doesn’t always mean understanding.”
Ewan “The most surprising thing for me was that nobody talks other than teachers during class hours. It looked weird to me.”
11) The program also introduced Korean parents’ relentless focus on education.
They showed so-called “goose fathers,” men who are left behind to work in Korea in order to pay for their families to live and study abroad, and mothers who bow 3,000 times, praying for their children to get good KSAT exam scores.
12) They analyzed Koreans’ huge investment in education, which resulted in an economy that’s grown at an astonishing rate. However, the benefit has come at a big cost, causing problems among the intensely competitive society, such as another record – the highest juvenile suicide rates.
13) PISA 2015 ranking of Korea among 70 countries
Reading 4th ~ 9th
Mathematics 6th ~ 9th
Science 9th ~ 14th
According to the recent release of the 2015 PISA results, Korean students recorded the lowest scores in their history since 2000.
14) Interest in studying - 0.14 / 61th out of 70 countries
What makes the situation worse is that the Korean students’ interest in studying was almost last among 70 countries.
15) “Fitting the hagwon schedule makes it harder to meet the regular meal time. It is common for us to go to sleep around three in the morning, or sometimes stay up all night to digest the heavy workload we are given.” -- Park Se-eun (15)
The higher their grades, the more stress they endure.
16) “In Britain, students spare enough time in socializing and doing diverse activities whereas Korean students put most of their time into studying. To find a point between those two countries’ systems would be the best solution.”
Min Young-chan (16), who observed the Welsh students for three days, suggested a simple solution.
17) Why can’t the government solve the problem that even a young student can understand?
It is time to consider a new education system that guarantees students’ happiness and resolves the side effects of the cram system of education.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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