Fulbright U.S. Education Center

The Korea Times is carrying a series of articles on private tutoring in South Korea.  Today’s article focuses on the difficulty of enforcing laws against such tutoring.   According to an official at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, “It is hard to control tutoring due to privacy matters, especially when it comes to foreigners.  Moreover, many of those who seek out such tutoring are well connected, leaving little room for authorities to uncover their illegal transactions.”

Reportedly, no foreign tutors have been caught by the authorities for violation of the Private Education law.

The recent scandal affecting SAT testing in Korea has taken a new twist with reports that at least one much sought after SAT instructor was kidnapped and beaten after he tried leaving his private academy for another one.  According to a report in the Joongang Daily, police say that he reported being taken against his will to a villa in Gyeonggi and threatened after he tried to leave the academy last December.   Several private institutes tutoring for the SAT in southern Seoul are reportedly engaged in overheated competition for top lecturers in order to attract as many students as possible.

The Korea Times today published an interview with Vice Minister of Education Lee Ju Ho, that provides a good overview of the current administration’s education policy.  It’s goal, as the headline proclaimed, was to keep Hagwons (private institutes) at bay.  The Vice Minister was quoted as saying “Simply put, our goals are to enable students to be home by 10 P.M. rather than in cram schools, and to help them become rational thinkers rather than receptacles of rote knowledge.”   Lee, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University is considered one of the architects of the Lee Myung Bak administration’s education policy and now leads its day-to-day operations.

The administrations reform measures are being implemented in three steps.

• First, colleges and universities are being given greater discretion in selecting new students, allowing them to decide how much to weigh the college scholastic ability (CSAT) test scores.
• This is to be followed by a reduction in the number of subjects tested on the CSAT.
• The third and final step allows schools full authority in student selection through admissions officers.

The government’s reform efforts are viewed as a remedy for the “education fever” that many people think may negatively affect the country’s future.  Currently, hagwons in Seoul are barred from offering classes after 10:00 P.M.  That ban is set to spread to the rest of the country after the Constitutional Court’s rejection of a petition against the ban.  Also, the cram schools are being closely monitored to see whether they are following guidelines on fees.  South Korea leads the world in expenditures per capita on private lessons, spending about $30 billion per year on them.

English education and English testing have perennially been high profile topics for public discussion in Korea.  That, in and of itself, is not surprising in this country which has built a modern education system almost from scratch in the span of just over half a century.   However, the public discussions these days are especially intense, as outlined by a report earlier this week in the Korea Times, entitled “Can Ahn’s English Education Overhaul Succeed?”

The lead sentence of the article points out that Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Byong-man has been fighting against increasing private education costs since he took office in 2008.  One key part of his effort to cut these costs is a new evaluation program for teachers.  Under his leadership, the Ministry will conduct teacher evaluation programs at all elementary and secondary schools, starting from the Spring semester this March.  Minister Ahn believes the quality of teachers is pivotal to public education and hopes it will help parents and students to break from their reliance on private education institutes or hagwons.

A second project within the Ministry aimed at containing private education costs is the development of an English proficiency exam.  Last week, Ahn announced that colleges can use the results of the state-developed English tests in selecting students from 2012, when the exam is scheduled to debut.  Ahn said, “I am trying to persuade college and university presidents to discontinue the use of TOEFL and TOEIC scores for admissions as soon as possible.”

The Korea Times this morning has a very informative article by Robert Dickey that summarizes the continuing strong influence of the university entrance exam (College Scholastic Aptitude Test) on Korean education.   Despite many efforts to change it over the years, “education inflation,” “teaching to the test” and the like persist.   This article is a good introduction to the current situation.

As reported in The Korea Times today, the state-run college scholastic ability test, which was administered nationwide yesterday, is generally less crucial than it was in the past.  Colleges these days use their own methods to select students for admission in advance of the CSAT.   A large number of students are accepted during an “early admissions” process and many universities require that those students submit the results of the CSAT test as a sort of “pass-fail” final requirement for admission.  For details, read the full article.

The Korea Times today reports that a consortium has been named to organize Korea’s new government-run English proficiency tests.  The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Wednesday that a group consisting of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and four universities will administer the first grade-level exam of the state tests.  Grade one tests will be developed for adults seeking to attend graduate school or gain employment, while grades 2 and 3 will be used for students attending elementary to high school.

The KCCI will cooperate with Seoul National University, the organizer of the TEPS test, Hanguk University of Foreign Studies, developer of the FLEX test, Sookmyung Women’s University, organizer of the MATE test, and Korea University.

A short article in The Korea Times this morning provides another reminder of the high priority this nation places on the college entrance exam.  The headline pretty much tells the story.   A total of 94 domestic flights and two international flights will be re-scheduled this Thursday, when the annual college scholastic ability tests are administered nationwide.  More than half a million high school seniors and repeaters will take the test.

South Korea’s foreign language high schools have become a hot political issue.  A lawmaker from the ruling party has again suggested that they should be eliminated.   The first two foreign language high schools, Daewon and Daeil, were approved in 1992.  Starting in the mid-1990s they gained a reputation of sending most of their students to prestigious universities.  However, they are now being criticized for fueling the private institute or “cram school” market in Korea.

For further background on this issue, read the article in today’s Joongang Ilbo.

An article appeared in the Korea Times yesterday that illustrates the high profile and potentially controversial nature of English testing in South Korea.  The article deals with an ETS Korea scholarship program that selected eight high school students as “ETS Ambassadors.”

The article notes that the ETS promotion comes at a time when foreign language high schools in Korea have dropped TOEFL requirements.  I might add that the general context for this article involves the important question of whether or not TOEFL is an appropriate test for middle school and high school students, many of whom have been taking it in recent years, for lack of an alternative.