Rights to Better Education
By Sah Dong-seok
Deputy Managing Editor
Foreign-language high schools have been under fire since a governing party lawmaker branded them as the main culprit behind the country's unusual private education craze earlier this month.
As a parent of a senior of a foreign-language high school in Gyeonggi Province who is impatiently waiting for the Nov. 12 college scholastic ability test (CSAT), I feel obliged to speak on this boiling issue.
First of all, I doubt whether the rampant private education will be gone or curtailed considerably even if these so-called elite schools are abolished.
Allegations that foreign- language high schools should be most blamed for the private education fever are partly right and partly wrong. Given that a great number of middle school students ― in many cases even primary school pupils ― spend much of their time at private cramming schools called ``hagwon'' to pass the tough entrance exam for foreign-language high schools, these allegations are right. Yet, given that students at these special-purpose schools rely less on hagwon than those attending ordinary high schools because of relatively better and customized education programs there, the stigma of a private education hotbed attached to these schools is wrong.
Education experts say parents and students would look to other options like international schools and science schools if foreign-language high schools were eliminated and this means that demand for private education would remain intact.
To be sure, the keys to curbing high private education costs lie in reviving public education and improving the current college entrance examination system.
I was reluctant when my wife proposed sending our daughter to a foreign-language high school near my home three years ago because I was aware of disadvantages the students face when applying for universities due to fiercer intra-school competition. Under the current entrance system, universities usually select successful applicants through screening processes combining CSAT marks and school records. The top-notch Seoul National University, in particular, chooses students by focusing more on school records in accordance with government policy ― a decisively disadvantageous factor for students in foreign-language high schools.
In the long run, I allowed my daughter to apply for a foreign-language high school because I didn't want to see her study at an ordinary school where it would be difficult to expect normal classes under the collapse of public education. I was appalled at allegations that teachers don't step in while students sleep or create a disturbance in class under the current uniform and equalized education system. And I abhorred the alleged languor of teachers who refuse to get evaluated.
The important thing is what parents and students want and I believe that parents have the right to ask the government to provide better education as taxpayers.
The contention that foreign-language high schools have violated their original establishment purposes ― raising foreign-language talents ― appears to be incorrect. Tracing the history of foreign-language high schools here, we can easily find that their establishment was double-edged.
They made their debut in 1984 as a kind of vocational institute that aimed to foster students with expertise in foreign languages. But their birth, along with that of science schools, was also intended to heal chronic problems arising from the introduction of equalization policies in 1974 ― a decline in students' overall scholastic achievements ― and help sharpen the country's education competitiveness through flexible or elite education.
The most worrisome part of the latest controversy over foreign-language high schools is that politicians have raised the issue for political purposes. The allegation by Rep. Chung Doo-un of the ruling Grand National Party that they are a failure and should be made highly responsible for exorbitant private education costs smacks of a populist propaganda aimed at wooing voters who are most keen on reducing private education expenses, ahead of the local elections scheduled for June next year.
Everybody knows that there is no quick fix to the problem of widespread private education and it will take a lot of time before it is addressed properly. But some lawmakers of the governing party, especially several confidants of President Lee Myung-bak, have shown impatience, making excessive moves to raise his approval ratings that have shown an upward curve recently thanks to his trademark pro-working class and centrist policies.
Can we imagine a world without competition? History shows that socialism has all but perished due to people's selfishness and lack of motivation to work hard. Looking at the latest controversy over foreign-language high schools, we see the Lee administration backtracking on its education principles of self-regulation and competition.
In the short term, the boiling issue of foreign-language high schools could be tackled by improving their screening processes in such a direction as to let students with little private education enter, and opening their doors to applicants from poor families. But what should be kept in this process is that the ``reform'' should not bring down the overall level of society for equalization.