Obama Cites More Classes in South Korea Than US
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
U.S. President Barack Obama touted the strength of the Korean education model, Tuesday, highlighting students here spending longer hours in the classroom than their American counterparts, encouraging them to consider it as a solution to improving their education.
In a speech he delivered at the 19th Legislative Conference of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce held in Washington D.C., Obama called on Americans to incorporate more time for children who need it, labeling education ``a prerequisite for success.''
``Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea ― every year. That's no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy,'' Obama stressed.
``That's why I am calling for us not only to expand effective after-school programs, but to rethink the school day to incorporate more time ― whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it,'' he added.
Stressing that the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom, Obama said, ``If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States.''
Secondary school Korean students have consistently demonstrated one of the world's best academic performances in a series of assessments conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in collaboration with the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
An OECD/PISA study of 2006, which measured literacy in reading, mathematics and science among 265,000 15-year-olds, showed that Korea, along with Finland and Japan, was one of the highest-performing countries among 30 OECD member countries.
Korea topped in reading, placed fourth in mathematics and 11th in science in the study.
The 2000 study also found that Korea topped in science, was second in mathematics and sixth in reading. The OECD/PISA conducts the assessment study every three years.
Some local experts say that Korean families' excessive spending on private tutoring and after-school programs helped their children demonstrate high performances in the international tests.
According to an education ministry survey, families spent approximately 21 trillion won in total for their children to attend programs provided by private institutes last year, an increase of 4.3 percent from the previous year.
Bernard Hugonnier, deputy director of the OECD Directorate for Education, however, presented a different view about the results in Seoul, shortly after the OECD/PISA study of 2003 was released.
``Spending in education is high in your country, but it's not the highest among other OECD countries,'' he said, adding other countries such as Turkey, Russia and Greece also spent greatly on education but their performances were not as great as that of Korea.
Hugonnier observed that putting all students together in the same class, despite their different academic performance levels, helped Korean students achieve high academic performances because underachieving students were motivated to work harder to catch up with their high-flying classmates.