Education Divide
It's Time to Push Reform to Normalize School Education
A nationwide scholastic achievement test among schoolchildren shows the wide divide between schools in affluent districts and those in poor areas. According to the results of an exam taken by 1.96 million students last October, about 10 percent of ninth and 10th graders do not meet basic academic standards. The silver lining is that only 2.4 percent of six graders were placed in the ``deficient'' category, meaning that elementary school students fared well.
The problem is that 10.4 percent of ninth graders and 9 percent of 10th graders were rated deficient in major subjects, including Korean, English, mathematics and science. More serious is the noticeable gap in test scores between wealthy and poor regions, as well as between big cities and rural areas. Even students in different education districts in Seoul showed a big difference in their scholastic achievements.
In the affluent Gangnam district in southern Seoul, students ranked top in the overall evaluations, apparently because their parents' wealth has made it possible for them to get better educational opportunities, including easier access to private tutoring and cram schools. But those in poor districts in northern Seoul displayed relatively poor results. It goes without saying that students in low-income rural areas generally belonged to deficient groups.
There was a fresh surprise. Students in a few remote rural areas showed strong performances. In Yeongwol, a mountainous county in Gangwon Province, sixth graders' test results in Korean took the nation's first place, beating out their counterparts in Seoul's Gangnam district. The exceptional performance were attributed to strenuous efforts by teachers and local authorities to improve the quality of education with their devotion to teaching and lavish financial support for schools, serving as a model for badly needed reform to increase the competitiveness of education.
Policymakers, educators and teachers have to humbly accept the outcome of the scholastic achievement test, the first of its kind at the national level. It's safe to say that the nation's long-held egalitarian education policy has deteriorated overall academic levels. It's also ironic that the educational divide has widened despite three decades of the ``standardization'' policy. In this regard, the authorities have come under criticism for devastating school education and prompting private tutoring for college entrance exams.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced a plan to offer promotions and other incentives to schoolmasters who succeed in improving students' performances, but the move is seen as a mere stopgap measure. It's urgent that the Lee Myung-bak administration draw a bigger picture for education reform to normalize school education and improve educational competitiveness, which is pivotal to the nation's sustainable development.