Probing causes of teenage misery in Korea

By David Jahnke

SEOUL: After spending nearly four blessed years teaching in Korea, I'm heading home. The love and respect with which I've been treated is something that I will always cherish. I've taught at every level and in both private "institutes." In many ways, I've been spoiled by the diligence and by the enjoyable demeanor of my students.

While generally growing to love this land and its people, the most saddening aspect of Korean society to me is the current education system and its effects on the lives of middle and high school students.

Teenagers should not have to spend 10 to 15 hours a day in school or institutes. Adolescence is a time in life that should be enjoyed. It is a time for hanging out with friends (even those of the opposite sex), developing athletic skills, and discovering new interests.

Such activities are hampered by an overly authoritative and outrageously demanding system of education. Everybody acknowledges that the situation is regrettable, but no one seems to be making an effort to bring about any substantial change.

It should also be clear that at the root of the problem is the format of the college entrance examination and its disproportionate weight in determining admission. Because the test covers 12 subjects, it is, in many ways, a measure of one's factual knowledge.

Although math and Korean, both reasonable measures of students' intellectual capacities, account for 50 percent of the exam, the other half of the exam measures how much of their youth has been spent in a library, study room, classroom, or an overly- priced tutor's room being fed and memorizing facts.

On the positive side, students graduate from high school possessing a wealth of knowledge. On the negative side, you can't really call their existence living.

In giving the most weight to math and Korean, Koreans are on the right track. On the SAT I college entrance exam in America, there are two scores: A verbal score that tests English vocabulary and critical reading skills, and a math score.

This system measures a student's intellect and academic potential. If Korea adopted this format, the rote memorization of facts in such areas as history, music, art, science and English would become unnecessary. The burden on students would be lifted and teachers would be free to teach to the students instead of to the test.

Most teachers, though frustrated and weary, do their best to prepare their students for this all-important exam. The bottom line for teachers is not whether they have a significant impact on the development of the minds of their pupils, but whether their students succeed on the exam.

Teachers have little time to develop critical thinking, creativity or writing skills due to the emphasis on one-way (teacher to student) lecturing aimed at preparing students for the entrance exam.

Most teachers I've talked to would love to have greater freedom with regard to teaching methods. They also recognize the positive results that a larger variety of classroom activities would produce.

A change in the format of the test needs to be accompanied by a change in the weight of the test. One positive aspect of the current system is that diligent study habits are rewarded. If the test was reformed to measure future academic potential instead of past memorization, then hard work by students must be encouraged in other ways.

This is possible by giving greater weight to school grades and extra-curricular activities in determining admission. Those students who consistently do their homework and study hard for their tests would be rewarded with better grades that would help them in their admission hopes.

Schools could develop better extra-curricular programs that their students would be free to participate in due to fewer time constraints.

I've heard that one problem with this suggestion is that schools, driven by financial motives to have as many students as possible enter good universities would boost the grades of their students to get more of them admitted. I have no solution to this quandary other than a regular Department of Education assessment of the percentage of As, Bs, Cs, etc. being handed out by schools.

To all high school students imprisoned by a system which restricts all that you do, pressures you to succeed at any cost and permits little creativity or freedom of thought, my heart goes out to you. I challenge all those in power to find the courage to completely overhaul the university entrance exam and admission criterion.

The writer is an English instructor in Anyang, Kyonggi Province, South Korea.

The Korea Herald / Asia News Network