Sleepless in Seoul: The Academic Pressure Faced by Korean Youth
I always have this conversation with my mom.
“Haha okay, I’ll see what I can do, mom, but I need to hang up now. Gotta get ready for school. I’ll call you later, good ni…wait. Can I talk to Alvin for a second? I haven’t talked to him in a while. He has not gone to bed yet, right?”
“Go to bed? He is not even home yet.”
“What? Isn’t it close to midnight there? Where is he?”
“He is still at his math academy. He’ll be back at one.”
My brother is applying for college in South Korea next year, so this year is the most critical for getting high test scores and building his application. After ending the call with my mom, I recalled my times in high school. I went to an international school that followed Western school curriculum. I came back from school when the sun was still up, and on some days, I took piano or drum lessons after school. I do not remember having to go to any math academy. However, my brother’s school life looks much different. It seems like he barely has a life outside of school. Though it is undeniable that Korea’s competitive education environment has contributed to the country’s rapid economic growth, perhaps the endeavors toward high achievement have gone a little too far where now it keeps students from exploring their true interests and negatively affects their social relationships with their parents and peers.
The current system in place has a particular historical context. Michael Sess, a specialist in Korean history, explains in his book Education Fever: Society, Politics, and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea that South Korea’s competitive education environment is a result of limited access to education during the mid-20th century. He elaborates that during the Japanese Colonial Period (1910–1945), Korea was deprived of their right for proper education, and with the Confucian ideas deeply rooted in their culture, Korea’s zeal for education was built up naturally. When Korea emancipated, even with the limited financial resources, South Korean government prioritized its efforts to lower the illiteracy rate. To do so, elementary education was first reinforced, then secondary education, then higher education. Sess articulated that South Korea’s “education fever” has served as one of the primary factors for its rapid economic growth. People were encouraged to learn both academic and practical knowledges that could be used collaboratively at work. Since many people became literate and knowledgeable, the enhanced workforce allowed many companies to be successful. In fact, within the last half century, South Korea’s GDP has jumped from 158 USD to 35K USD (“GDP Growth (Annual %) — Korea, Rep.”). However, whether or not this “education fever” is still giving positive influences to the country is a question.
High school in Korea today is very competitive where students on average spend 12–16 hours per day at school (“International Schools and the education system in South Korea”). That is because entrance to prestigious colleges in Korea is very competitive. Of about 200 universities in Korea, SKY — Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University — are the top three universities. Every year, about 450 thousand students take the college entrance exam in Korea, and only a few students get to study where they want to study. Attending a prestigious college opens up doors to various opportunities. However, although admission to these schools does not necessarily guarantee career success, failing to get into these schools significantly limits one’s chances of landing a high-paying job in South Korea. This led many students and their parents to be obsessive about getting into a good college. Instead of studying what lies at a student’s interest, students prefer to apply for unpopular majors — majors that have low employment rates such as philosophy, Jewish and Middle East Studies, and European languages — at a prestigious school (Park). Likewise, my cousin, who is a current high school senior in Korea, decided to apply as a human ecology major at SKY universities because with her grades, she couldn’t get into SKY as a business major, and she didn’t want to go to non-SKY universities.
Students’ mental and physical health from such a system are major concerning points. Excessive study hours every day do not give students enough time to sleep, eat, and enjoy their life, and this life habit does not change much after getting a job. One survey reported that one in four men and one in three women are diagnosed with depressive disorder in South Korea, with adolescents, especially those just out of middle school, reporting the highest number of cases (Byeon). Adolescence depressive disorder adversely affects interpersonal relationships and increases the probability of developing other mental illnesses such as panic disorder, thus early detection and prevention are important. However, because schools and adults place more attention on the academic performance of the students, the importance of sustainable health and mental management are often neglected.
One of the biggest flaws of over-competitiveness is that it creates a toxic environment that prevents students from developing necessary social skills. Grades are given based on the curve, so students view their peers more as rivals to beat than as friends or classmates with whom they spend a lot of time learning. One research revealed that “due to the high-stakes Korean educational environment, student relationships with parents, teachers, or peers that would generally be expected to create beneficial social capital, may instead lead to greater pressure to live up to high expectations instead of reducing academic stress” (Jarvis). This indicates that although having someone to talk to generally helps students feel better, the more they share their feelings and thoughts about their schoolwork, the more stress they get from their interactions. Friends are important components of one’s life and not being able to develop a reliable friendship during teenage years can be reflected in the later years through limited social skills. For instance, my brother once asked one of his classmates if she could help him solve one math problem. Instead of explaining the question, the girl responded, “Oh, this is indeed too advanced for you. I suggest you don’t waste your time trying to understand this problem because you probably won’t be able to anyways.” Ranking systems have led students to judge and treat each other hierarchically based on test scores and academic achievement, but most healthy relationships require neither party to be subordinate and to be able to express opinions equally.
On top of that, students came to prioritize after-school private education more than the education they receive at school. In the Sky Castle, a student was caught doing her academy homework during class so the teacher took the book away from her. When the teacher told her to pay attention in class, she responded that she had already covered all the materials in her private tutor sessions and that the class was very boring. She added since she was quietly doing her own work, she wasn’t distracting the class thus she didn’t see anything wrong with continuing her after-school homework. From this scene it was observable that one, students have low respect for their teachers; and two, the academic intelligence of students differ a lot by individuals in class. At school, teachers have to consider different levels of students, which makes it hard to meet the expectations of individual students. In academies, students are grouped by similar academic levels, so they can learn and ask questions at their own pace. Private tutors are even better in this aspect. In fact, the economists reported that in 2016, 18 trillion KRW, which is equivalent to 15 billion USD, was spent on private education whereas 54 trillion KRW, which is equivalent to 45 billion USD, was funded on public education by the government.
Since the work needed to achieve competitive test results and grades takes up a significant portion of students’ lives, it has reached a point where the efforts of the students alone cannot achieve their goals — parents’ roles became very important. “When kids tear their books because they don’t want to study, it is the parents’ responsibility to open a new book for them. When they break their pencils, the parents have to give them a new one. I’m telling you to do a little more. You can climb to the top of the first class.” This quote from Sky Castle, a South Korean TV show that portrays the struggles that families go through to get their children into the best universities, received a lot of sympathy from Korea. In order to be the best student in class, students receive external resources for assistance. After they get out of school, students go to academies where they can take private classes on specific subjects that they need tutoring on. The most common academies are classes on Korean language, English, and math, and the number of classes and quality of tutors all depend on the parents’ financial ability. Private education is very common in Korea, and it is very hard to find a student who does not receive any private education in Seoul, where the academic competitiveness is the most intense in the country.
Academic hyper-competitiveness is preventing students from becoming well-rounded and pursuing their genuine interests. Since all students have the same goal of going to prestigious universities, students only spend time studying subjects that are being tested on college entrance exams, and they are discouraged from learning things that are not important for college entrance exams. When a student gets interested in taking, for instance, a guitar class, which is not part of the college entrance exam, teachers generally do not let him or her do it because it is not going to help the student get into a good college. This produces diminished creativity and innovation. The irony, however, is that when writing a college application essay, colleges look for unique students. With the addition of private education, students are asked to spend a significant amount of time on studying that they barely have time for leisure activities. My brother, for instance, comes home from academies after midnight, and then he still has school homework to do. This is considered a norm among his classmates, and it is likely to continue until the day he receives his college application results back.
Similarly, in the current society, college graduates are heavily concentrated on high-paying jobs, and there is a dearth of talent and participation in all other fields, including the social sciences and humanities. Students place an extreme premium on education as a means to high earnings in medicine. Regardless of their interests and what they really enjoy learning, many smart students decide to enter a medical school because of the societal pressure that they are not making the most use of their smartness if they do not become a doctor. For the same reason, recently, many college students decided to drop out of their college and retake the college entrance exam so that they can get into a medical school. Unlike in the United States, South Korean medical schools do not require four years of pre-med procedures and allow students to apply to medical schools directly after finishing high school. A relatively short study period and guaranteed high salary make many smart students want to become doctors whether or not they are interested in saving lives and helping people.
In conclusion, it is about time that South Korea needs to reform its education system. The competitive environment that has been continued since the establishment of the country has undeniably encouraged people to perform better in many different aspects such as in academics, economy, and culture. However, students today are suffering too much and it seems like the current education system is limiting many talented students’ potential and possibilities. A more sustainable education system that encourages individuals to explore and pursue their genuine interests has to be implemented, and doing so requires a bold movement from the government, which cannot be done without the problem first being acknowledged by the public.
Works Cited
Byeon, Haewon. “Predicting South Korea Adolescents Vulnerable to Depressive Disorder Using Bayesian Nomogram: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.” World Journal of Psychiatry, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 19 July 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9331454/#:~:text=It%20has%20been%20reported%20that,with%20depressive%20disorder%5B3%5D.
“GDP Growth (Annual %) — Korea, Rep.” Data, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=KR.
“International Schools and the Education System in South Korea.” InterNations, 10 Feb. 2023, https://www.internations.org/south-korea-expats/guide/education#:~:text=Students%20spend%20much%20of%20their,to%20concentrate%20on%20their%20results.
Jarvis, Jonathan A., et al. “Too Much of a Good Thing: Social Capital and Academic Stress in
South Korea.” Social Sciences, vol. 9, no. 11, Oct. 2020, p. 187. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110187.
Park, Sisoo. “Universities Shut down Unpopular Departments.” Koreatimes, The Korea Times, 15 Sept. 2008, http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/07/117_31037.html.
Seth, Michael J. Education Fever: Society, Politics, and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea. University of Hawai’i Press, 2002. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqt47.
