South Korea’s Education Policy: Keeping Hagwon’s at Bay
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
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.
