Korea - Education

Education

Main articles: Education in North Korea and Education in South Korea

The modern Korean school system consists of six years in elementary school, three years in middle school, and three years in high school. Students are required to go to elementary and middle school, and do not have to pay for their education, except for a small fee called a "School Operation Support Fee" that differs from school to school. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks South Korea's science education as the third best in the world and being significantly higher than the OECD average.

Korea also ranks second on math and literature and first in problem solving. Although South Korean students often rank high on international comparative tests, the education system is sometimes criticised for its emphasis on passive learning and memorization. The Korean education system is much more strict and structured than the education systems of most Western societies. Also, high cost and dependence on non-school private institutions (Hagwon (학원)), a for-profit private institute, academy or cram-school prevalent in South Korea, is criticised as a major social problem. After students enter university, however, the situation is markedly reversed.

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Famous quotes containing the word education:

    “The experience of the race shows that we get our most important education not through books but through our work. We are developed by our daily task, or else demoralized by it, as by nothing else.”
    —Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)

    “The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”
    —Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)

    “His education lay like a film of white oil on the black lake of his barbarian consciousness. For this reason, the things he said were hardly interesting at all. Only what he was.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)