An article in The Korea Times today notes that many new service businesses are doing well in Korea. In particular, it observes that foreign language institutes, primarily teaching English, saw sales increase by 25.2 percent in 2008. Online English classes saw sales rise 38.1 percent.
As reported in the Joongang Daily today, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has announced that applicants to foreign language high schools who say they received private education or tutoring will be disadvantaged. This is the Ministry’s latest effort to address concerns that changes in the foreign language high school’s admission process will further overheat the private education market. The Ministry had earlier announced that foreign language high schools would introduce an admission process that emphasized “self-study” in 2011.
Admissions officers will measure “self study” in various ways, including interviews, examination of study plans and letters of recommendation. English listening tests, written exams and interviews asking about applicant’s knowledge of specific subjects will be banned. The Ministry also said that applicants who report their scores for foreign language aptitude tests, such as TOEFL, will lose points.
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.
Some of you may be interested in the post on my Korea Information Society blog about the Ministry of Science and Technology’s plans for digital textbooks.
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.
A very informative article appeared in this morning’s Korea Times. It notes that the number of young students going abroad for study has been dropping since 2006. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the number of elementary, middle and high school students going abroad to study declined from 29,511 in 2006, to 27,668 in 2007 and 27,349 in 2008.
To provide some historical perspective, in 1998 the number of young students studying abroad was only 1,562. This number began steadily increasing until it reached a peak in 2006, as shown in the accompanying graphic.
As of 2008, elementary students took up the largest share with 12, 531 going abroad, compared with 8,888 middle school and 5,930 high school students respectively.
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.
As noted in a recent article in the Chosun Ilbo, almost 2,000 students dropped out of Korea’s highly competitive foreign language high schools between 2004 and 2008. This represented a dropout rate of approximately two percent. The report suggested that those who dropped out had found themselves on the lower rungs of academic accomplishment, so chose to drop out and take the high school equivalence test instead.