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Education and the price of pressureJeju¡¯s impressive school results come at a cost
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¡ã Students at Ara Middle School await the final bell of the day. Photo by Darryl Coote

Jeju middle and high school students scored highest in the five core classes on the national-level achievement test administered by the Ministry of Educational Science and Technology in 2009. In Math and English they scored 7 percent and 6.5 percent higher respectively than second-placed Gwangju.

These impressive statistics, achieved through the hard work of Jeju’s youth, comes with, what to some may seem, a hefty cost.

According to a study by the Korean Teachers & Education Workers’ Labor Union released last month, 25.6 percent of middle school students are "very stressed" due to high school entrance exams, with an additional 17.5 percent claiming that they found the pressure unbearable. The study revealed 11 percent of students were suffering from clinical depression or other mental disorders as a result of the pressure.

Kang Chang Ik, head third grade teacher for Ara Middle School, agreed with the results of the study saying, “I believe that the findings do have some validity.”

In Korea, the path for students to gain an university acceptance letter begins the moment they enter middle school. They not only have to achieve high grades but also must gain a lofty score on their high school entrance exam. If they do, they advance to the next stage, academic high school; if they do not as fare as well, they will be enrolled in a vocational high school where their chance at entering university has all but dissolved.

Kim Yang Hee, mother of a student at Ara Middle School and a former high school teacher, referred to those who go to a vocational high school, whether by choice or because they are unable to obtain the necessary marks for admittance to an academic high school, as being marked with “a scarlet letter that prevents students from ever unfolding their potentials.”

This stigma not only affects the child but the entire family as well. “The idea amongst most parents is that if your kid goes to an academic high school in Jeju City he was a good student, but if he goes to a vocational high school, he is not a good student,” said Jean Young Bu, Headmaster of Ara Middle School. Kim said the shame is felt so strongly in such a small place as Jeju, that it is not uncommon for entire families to boycott social events after the results of the high school entrance examinations are released.

Even among academic high schools there is a hierarchy with Seoul-based schools considered the elite, then Jeju-based foreign language schools, followed by academic schools which only accept the highest grades, then those that admit the mid-range students and finally, schools that enroll those just above the academic cut-off line.

“Certain competition and the filtering-out process is necessary,” Kang said. “Since Jeju has a weaker job market than the mainland they have to try harder and these exam scores prove their competency as a Korean citizen. It has been the driving force behind Jeju maintaining its status over the mainland. It is necessary.”

Due to the level of competition, parents are forced to spend millions of won a year on sending their children to private academies (hagwon) which only inflames the stress. Kang said that approximately two-thirds of his students attend a hagwon and that since the schools are only responsible for the children during school hours, the pressure to excel is coming from the home.

According to the recent study, 61.6 percent attend some form of formal after school education and 48 percent said the pressure was applied by their parents with only 19.4 percent claiming teachers were the source of their stress.

“As providers of middle school education,” he said, “we don’t push the kids to get into an academic high school, we strictly maintain their hours from eight in the morning until 4:30 p.m. and [then] we send them home. If they choose to pursue other forms of education, the stress must be coming from there.”

Kim retorts that this excludes all those who cannot afford the extracurricular education, which she feels has become mandatory, not only because the majority of students do attend a hagwon, but also because the public institutions take this into account and test accordingly.

Kim states that it is common practice for teachers to suggest parents with children on the borderline of being accepted into an academic high school to send their children to Seoul for a year, then return to Jeju. Due to Seoul’s population density, any student who transfers to a rural school (any school on Jeju), must be accepted, even if the institute is at full capacity.

Kang said that they don’t advise parents to pursue this route and that “our most important mission is to make sure that no kid is left out,” whether that be in a vocational or academic high school, they strive to find the best fit for the student.

According to Head Master Jean the only way for a vocational high school student to attend a university is if they apply for the same subject they studied previously, such as nursing.

He continues that this elitist system is the product of too many universities and that even Jeju National University cannot fill its freshman quota. “No matter how good they are, they can go to college,” he said, though seemingly to ignore those that attend vocational high schools, which is decided when the student was 15 years of age.

The recent study showed that 24.4 percent of Jeju middle school students who had completed the entrance exam said that the process of constant “test taking and memorization made me feel like a robot and I felt disappointed in myself,” while 31 percent claimed “I grew to hate school and society that judges only by standardized testing and academic records.”

The problem middle school students face is that they are living out their early teens in an environment that demands their academic future to be determined by the age of 15.

This creates a saturation of formal education and pressure, not only from the home, but from schools. This prevents the youth from taking risks, independent exploration and the option to fail, at anything, which is at the cornerstone of being an adolescent. They are grappling with a situation they are only beginning to comprehend; that what you do now will affect you years in the future and as long as other nations applaud Korea for its academic achievements, institutional change will continue to be out upon the horizon.




Darryl CooteÀÇ ´Ù¸¥±â»ç º¸±â  
¨Ï Jeju Weekly 2009 (http://www.jejuweekly.com)
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