Are They Criminals?

By Kim See-bong

Private-run institutions for teaching are called ``hagwon'' in Korea. Someday it will be registered in the Webster's Dictionary. I have been running a hagwon for 20 years, and I am proud of my job.

However, the owners of hagwon run the risk of being viewed as suspicious in our society. They are treated like black sheep who block the development of national education, rock economic stability and enhance the extreme social division.

This is because the government puts the blame of our education problems upon hagwon.

If a student excels academically or doesn't do well, they say it's because they go to or don't go to hagwon. The hagwon generally shoulder the burden of educational complaints.

It is like saying that the hagwon determines the fate of national education.

Frequently we hear news that some private schools collect too much in tuition fees and this has led to breaking the family budget, and has played a part in destabilizing the national economy.

Although this may be true in some cases, for a majority of the hagwon this not the case. They are doing their utmost to survive within the margins set up by the government.

However, hagwon are also businesses. They were born of market orientation and aim to provide the best quality service to customers, who determine supply. The quality of the supply is what determines demand. These are the reasons for the prices (fees) required to maintain a hagwon.

So we have to admit that even the same commodities are sold at different prices depending on where they are sold and what kind of brand they are. Why are only hagwon the target of unreasonable price control?

The reports from the mass media are painting the hagwon industry as a black sheep that needs to be removed for the benefit of national education.

They are doing this only for the sake of news making or to side with the authorities. But they fail to mention that hagwon play an important role, filling the insufficiencies of our public education.

Methods of education are also one of the things that need to be globalized. Therefore, the hagwon is an educational institution that needs to be cultivated to the maximum, not removed.

It is evident that excessive restriction produces undesirable spin-offs. As the problems of our educational system are often attributed to the excessively detailed control by the government, the same intensity of restrictions imposed on hagwon is suffocating them.

The only way they think they can save themselves is to find a loophole in the system or even run the risk of violating some regulations. So they have no choice but to collect more fees braving the irrational fee restriction.

Hagwon are excessively and unreasonably controlled by the authorities. For example, the limited fees allowed by the government are not practicable. For a hagwon to collect only the allowed fees, it would be unable to pay rent, electricity, water or any other miscellaneous charges.

Then, why do they give them a permit when they know there's no way for them to live without breaking the regulations? To produce lawbreakers? Turn them into criminals?

Hagwon are social contributors and want to be treated as such by the new government. May the new government try to find the solution to our deep-seated educational problems in terms of effective education rather than political motives.

Hagwon can co-exist successfully with public education.

The writer is principal of Polyglot Day School in Bundang, Gyeonggi-do. He can be reached at glsacademy@dreamwiz.com.