That Korea suffers from the ignominy of the highest suicide rate among the industrialized world has long ceased to be news. Yet the statistics released by the education ministry last week were shocking indeed: The number of elementary and secondary school students who killed themselves last year soared 47 percent to 202, which means at least one child committed suicide every other day.
In a country where young boys and girls have to study extremely long hours and their happiness index is one of the lowest in the world, living as teenagers here is far from a blessing. But it is a totally different matter for these adolescents to terminate their lives before knowing what life is really about.
Reasons for suicides were family feuds, poor school records, relationships with the other sex and psychiatric problems. The increasingly materialistic society and rapid break-up of traditional families as well as the inhumane education system focusing on training for test-taking robots were the two biggest factors behind the teens’ despair.
The time has long past for Korean society to make efforts to restore its humanity, a rapidly extinct element in this country.
Parents should of course take the lead in trying to ease personal difficulties their children experience while growing up. Most of all, grown-ups must not try to realize their unfulfilled dreams through their children. A good example of this is excessive coercion to study made under the pretext of bettering the lives of their offspring.
The whole nation also needs to try to rectify a social environment, which gives due recognition to only the best and the brightest, while hardly allowing second chance for temporary dropouts and even close runner-ups.
Most of all, the government’s policy to prevent suicide should be long-term and consistent. A one-time remedy cannot cure but only aggravate the social ailment, as seen last year when the suicide rate soared despite the government’s policy package.
Examples from other countries can provide lessons in this regard: The United States has carefully managed adolescents with a high suicide risk through state governments since 2004, and Japan enacted a basic law to prevent suicide in 2006.
Becoming an economically strong and advanced country has no meaning if the members of society ― especially its younger ones ― cannot find it a livable place.