Changes in Koreas school policy

By Chris Baumann, Hamin, and Rosalie L. Tung

Korea’s school system is based on Confucian principles and has been associated with transforming the former agrarian nation into a manufacturing powerhouse. Besides its success, recently there has been a debate about the Korean teaching style, influenced by foreign organizations proselytizing permissive Western education.

This year, Korea’s largest school district has banned corporal punishment, followed by two

other provinces. Teachers’ rights are restricted, while student rights dramatically increased. Public reactions in Korea are mixed: Korean parents are unwilling to see their children spend so much time on work instead of play. With affluence, parents want to give their children what they didn't have ― more spare time and less pressure. But the teachers’ union regrets the move, and the majority of students are in fact in favor of strict discipline.

Teachers fear that classroom management will be challenging, and that academic standards

will drop. Many parents share these concerns. Korea hosts some of the world’s best universities such as Seoul National University, but the continuation of such success relies on the influx of self-disciplined and performance-oriented students.

No doubt, one of the key factors leading to Korea’s rise from a developing country to an emerging market and eventually OECD member has been its performance-oriented education system. Changing that very system is an immensely risky strategy.

South Korea can be proud of its tremendous economic performance and advancement. Its brands such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG or its food staple Nongshim have become global labels, with two brands entering the world’s best global brands: Samsung being ranked 19th and Hyundai 65th.

Korea’s service quality is of such a high standard that, for example its airline Asiana, won the prestigious “Airline of the Year” award in 2010, placing it ahead of Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates. These successes can be linked, at least in part, to the performance-driven education system. Values of politeness and respect passed on in schools are key assets in the service industry such as in the case of Asiana or Korean Air.

Korea’s school system is characterized by a strong focus on academic achievement, discipline and respect for teachers and education per se. As a result, Korean students perform at the highest level in international competitions such as the 2009 PISA study where Korean teenagers ranked second overall, second in reading, fourth in math and sixth in science, ahead of Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand.

Consequently, American President Barack Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address refers to the superior Korean school system as a role model where teachers deserve respect and are viewed as nation builders. The U.S. has recently changed its former education objective of “no child left behind” to “race to the top” in order to regain competitiveness.

In North America, the influx of Asian immigrants has resulted in a clash of diverging views showcased in a recent debate triggered by articles in the Wall Street Journal and the Time magazine. “Tiger Mom” Amy Chua, a Yale law professor, discussed the strict upbringing of her daughters. The public debate evolved around permissive Western versus demanding Eastern parenting.

While on Internet blogs the demanding Eastern style was critically debated, the Time online poll was in favor (roughly 62 percent) of the demanding Eastern style, suggesting that the public opinion in the West has changed. A recent academic study by the authors of this opinion found that while Western pedagogic experts advocate a participative education approach, Western society (Australia and Canada) is in favor of stricter discipline.

In a global context where the American president refers to Korea’s strong academic performance, a change in education strategy to the Western model is a delicate move, potentially negatively affecting Korea’s Confucian-based culture. At the risk of gross oversimplification, Western education “produces” school leavers with inferior skills, knowledge and behavior in comparison to Asian graduates educated in China, Korea or Singapore.

Yet Western university freshmen are under the impression that they “know it all” and do not have to strive for the best. Praise is more easily given in Western education, and student participation encouraged without scrutinizing content for merit.

This mindset does not result in peak performance, considering the economic downturns in some Western countries plagued with jobs shifted overseas, high unemployment and substantial foreign debts. Asian students, in contrast, are more humble and used to a competitive environment. They have to perform to obtain praise and rewards, in turn poor behavior and performance trigger negative consequences.

Western schools are often plagued with discipline problems. Punishments such as detentions or suspensions appear ineffective, yet these attempts to manage student misbehavior deviate time and energy from actual learning. Academic standards and performance have dropped. In Korea, however, students get accustomed to a disciplined school environment starting from pre-school, preparing them to focus on academic content in the school years to come.

If Korea were to move away from that successful model and lower its standards in relation to performance, respect and discipline, then Korea may indeed jeopardize its well-run respect-based society, economic progression and its key competitive advantage ― educated and performance-driven people.

The Chinese believe that “Jade will never become a work of art without being carved,” and based on China’s, Korea’s and Singapore’s academic successes demonstrated in PISA studies, this proverb should be the leading principle for education rather than the Western model with its associated problems of declining performance, lack of discipline and respect. Western teachers, students and parents are often demotivated. If Korea were to fall into the same trap and lower its academic standards, then this mistake could hardly be reversed.

Asia’s economic and structural successes can largely be attributed to modernization (infrastructure, education, concentrating on growing the economies) rather than on Westernization.

Korea is best advised to further modernize its school system (it has already upgraded its infrastructure and focus on English language), but it should not Westernize its education by relaxing its high standards or it may eventually also have to introduce a “race to the top” program, not realizing that the best strategy to achieve that race to the top would have been to leave the current Korean education approach untouched.

Dr. Chris Baumann is a senior lecturer in business at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He collaborates with Professor Chu Wu-jin of Seoul National University (SNU). Dr. Hamin is a lecturer in business at Macquarie University. Dr. Rosalie L. Tung is a chaired professor of international business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She has served on the faculties of the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), as a visiting professor at Harvard University and University of California, Los Angeles. She was also involved with the United Nations’ Task Force on Human Resource Management. They can be reached at chris.baumann@mq.edu.au, hamin.hamin@mq.edu.au, or tung@sfu.ca.