Korean Education System

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Years ago, South Korea faced multiple obstacles because of its wreckage from the civil war. Yet over the past century, South Korea has greatly improved, and is now applauded internationally for their high educational outcome. However, despite its success, the system’s still being criticized by the public. The focuses of this research are to provide fundamental information about the educational system of South Korea, abundant details about the factors that made the system one of the best, criticisms towards the system, and the systems effects on students and parents. The South Korean educational structure is divided into three parts namely: six years of primary school, followed by three years of middle school, then three years of high school.…show more content…
The English language becomes a part of the subjects in third grade in which children learn by an exchange of small talks instead of learning the grammatical rules in which they will focus on when they enter middle school & high school. The basic goals for the teachers & parents in primary schools are to improve children’s basic abilities, skills, and attitudes, and to develop their basic mathematical skills, and scientific observation skills. When students then graduate in primary school, they advance to middle school, which is grade seven through grade nine. Middle education, also the same with primary education, is compulsory and free. The subjects that are generally important are Mathematics, English, Science, Korean Language, and Social Studies. The final three years of school education now takes place at high schools. There are two types of high schools in South Korea: academic and vocational schools. Academic schools specialize to subjects taught more on the general academic curricular, while vocational schools…show more content…
Korean students are expected to be in school from 9 am to 5 pm and then attend cram school at night which usually ends at 11 pm; however, it doesn’t stop there. As soon as they are done with their after-school classes, they do their homework and study more and as a result, they barely sleep four hours a night. In additional to that, according to a Swedish documentary called the “Miracle of Korean Education”, due to the harsh competition, students of South Korea study over 60 hours a week. Because of those facts, the public believe that the system favors students with good memorizing skills and disregards students who have creativity; therefore it is a loss to the nation since creativity leads to innovation and advancement in the technology race. Another known criticism by the public is the suicide rate amongst teens. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked South Korean students (elementary up to high school) the lowest in terms of happiness because of the overload schoolwork and exam preparations that students have to prepare for, thus affect the students’ health and emotions. If a student fails to pass or to achieve the score they need to have in order to attend to their desired university on their CSAT, then there’s a chance they’ll fall under depression and sometimes, their

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