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Boodleheimer
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Location: working undercover for the Man
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 Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: South Korea's Education Success |
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from the BBC!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4240668.stm
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Young people in South Korea's workforce are more likely to have achieved an upper secondary education than anywhere else in the developed world.
They are also among the most likely to have university degrees, shows an annual education report from the OECD.
The Asian country has invested heavily in education as a central part of its economic future.
In the 1960s, South Korea had a national wealth on a level with Afghanistan, says the OECD.
But the country's emphasis on education has seen its young people leapfrogging the academic achievement of other industrialised countries, including the United Kingdom.
Top ranking
The annual publication of comparisons in education systems produced by theOECD - the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - reveals the extent of South Korea's progress.
It is now in first place in terms of the proportion of younger people who have completed an upper-secondary education - leading a small group of countries, including Norway and Japan, where more than 90% of pupils reach this level.
These figures compare two generations - those now in the 25 to 34 age group and those aged 45 to 54.
In the older group, South Korea was well below western European countries such as the UK.
But in the younger group, it now has the highest achievement in the world, with 97% reaching this level.
For this younger group, who left school in the early 1990s, the UK has nudged up from 64% to 71% reaching the level, but has been overtaken to be placed in the lower half of the table of OECD members.
In terms of the proportion of population entering higher education, there has been a similar upwards leap by South Koreans.
Among the older group, Korea had one of the lowest levels of university participation - but in the younger group it is now third, behind Canada and Japan.
More recent figures in the report show that since the 1990s, there has been an upward drive in these staying-on figures among industrialised countries - with Germany, Ireland, Greece and Switzerland joining this group where at least 90% of pupils complete upper secondary education.
Spending levels
The South Korean success is also reflected in test results. International comparisons of maths skills among teenagers placed South Korea in second place behind Finland.
A spokesman at the South Korean embassy in London said that there was a great value attached to education in the country - and that it was seen as the way of achieving individual and national success.
From being a country that had experienced much hardship, he said that South Koreans had invested in education as a means towards economic progress - and that the country had recognised the importance of developing skills in new technology.
In terms of the share of national wealth invested in education, from primary through to higher education, the biggest spenders were Switzerland, the United States and Norway.
In higher education, including research funding, the biggest budgets were in the United States, Switzerland and Denmark. And a separate measure of "cumulative spending", reflecting longer degree courses in some countries, showed high levels of funding in Sweden and Austria.
At school level, for both primary and secondary, the OECD report shows that Luxembourg had the highest level of spending per pupil, followed in both cases by the United States and Switzerland.
For pre-school pupils, aged three and four, the United Kingdom had the highest level of funding.
The OECD report also details that higher spending does not necessarily convert to higher results - and that some education systems are more efficient.
South Korea spends about half the amount on school pupils as the United States, but its performance at maths is much higher.
Finland, the top-performing country at maths in 2003, spends much less than Italy, which was almost the worst-performing.
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, if everyone passes just for being at school and you get beaten for not being at school, then yes, it's not that hard to get 97% of the population to 'finish' school. |
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Don Calliente
Joined: 31 Oct 2007
Location: SEOUL
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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Just like to question validity of this bbc report.
When they describe the 'workforce' I think they were being very selective.
I doubt they were counting mandu venders, drivers, KTF salesmen etc... |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:43 am Post subject: |
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They are assuming that Korea's labor force is the same as in Europe. So they are just looking at fancy numbers and derive great knowledge from it.
Everyone knows that in Korea if you get close to 50, the company will sac you and you have to start your own business just to survive. Poor buggers. |
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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:51 am Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Well, if everyone passes just for being at school and you get beaten for not being at school, then yes, it's not that hard to get 97% of the population to 'finish' school. |
Exactly. I've got some Sports majors who get 30% in their English class, and they get a 'B'. Plus, how much critical thinking is going on? Sure they graduated university, but they can't figure out how to solve the simplest of problems or plan ahead to save their life (very generally speaking). |
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Netz
Joined: 11 Oct 2004
Location: a parallel universe where people and places seem to be the exact opposite of "normal"
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| Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:01 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for posting this.
Students in my classes will be gloating about how "great" thier country is all week long.
Self-adulating hubristic masses ftw! |
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mikekim
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:23 am Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Well, if everyone passes just for being at school and you get beaten for not being at school, then yes, it's not that hard to get 97% of the population to 'finish' school. |
and legal part-time jobs pay $3 an hour. Whereas at home you have kids making their own businesses and quitting high school because they can bank more than their teachers. Also getting a degree in flower arranging or the community college equivalent of basket weaving degrees from iffy universities/colleges shoudn't really count as proper post-secondary education
oh yeah and apparently at my school you don't have to show up to graduate. you just get "checked" in the chusokbu. OMFG the horror, teh bad kids come to school after lunch if at all, get their requisite 16% by checking AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA on all their exams, and stop showing up after the CSAT. Mommy and Daddy buy them into college |
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jaderedux2
Joined: 09 Jul 2007
Location: lurking just lurking
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| Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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Yes everyone goes, everyone graduates from high school. However, that being said I have seen PERSONALLY students that can't read and write in Korean much less English.
They are shuttled off to "Industrial, Tech schools" where they supposedly learn a trade but a lot of it is just housing them until they graduate.
I have never ever heard of a student being held back. There are NO classes for the differently-abled in my city. They just keep move them to the next grade.
Damn Skippy everyone goes to school, everyone graduates but that doesn't mean they are educated.
My brother was right on the edge of when you can start school. My father insisted he go. Bad idea he ended up having to go to kindergarten twice. His motor skills weren't developed enough so he was held back. Ended up doing just fine and went on to college and graduated with a degree in Business and a minor in Spanish.
So the numbers don't mean much and mean even less to me after six years in the public school system. It is like factory farming. Get them in, move them on, get them out the door. So yes they go to school but many are not educated or even literate in their own language save to write their name and read a comic book.
Sad but true.
Jade |
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