By Na Jeong-ju
About half of South Korean secondary school students want to live in another country if given the option, a survey shows.
According to the survey, released Monday, 58 percent of third-year high school students and 24 percent of fourth-year elementary school students said they would move abroad if they could. About 50 percent of middle and high school students think Korea is not a good country to live in.
The survey was conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI) on some 9,400 elementary and secondary school students nationwide from May to July last year.
The result suggests a deep-rooted distrust of the country’s competition-oriented educational system, the institute said.
As students become older, their thoughts about the country’s political system become negative and their patriotism weakens, the survey showed.
About 83 percent of fourth-grade elementary school students said Korea’s political system was effective, but only 17 percent of third-year high school students thought the same.
About half of secondary school students said they do not trust the country’s law enforcement system.
Only 43 percent of third-year high school students said they trust the prosecution and police, compared to 78 percent of fourth-year primary school students who answered positively.
“The survey indicates that the attitude towards the country’s legal and political system becomes negative as students get older. Such a problem is partly due to the grave social pressure on students and a stressful school life,” an NYPI spokesman said.
“As their grades improve, they endure stiff competition to enter a good college, which may affect their views on the country’s established system.”
The survey also showed many students think illegal and violent rallies are an effective way of expressing opinions on socially controversial issues.
The majority of second-year middle school students said they would choose illegal rallies, such as blocking roads and public buildings, if they had to participate in politics.