Korean Job Discussion Forums

[4 months left]

[crazylemongirl]

That's nice. Won't happen. too many vested interests in the industry and zero energy to lower class sizes to a managable level. Also every park, lee and kim wants their little min-su to go to Seoul National University so hagwons are always going to be there to help little min-su on his way.

[Hater Depot]

If he means this, then he's dreaming. Hagwons didn't get popular until the hours of public schools were scaled back (yes, they used to be worse). Pushing your kids to study 14 hours a day is, I'm afraid, just part of the culture now.

[fidel]

Not a very accurate subject line. Perhaps you should have rephrased the title to "President Roh makes a random statement to normalize the country's education system (infering that it isn't normal?) and reduce dependence on after school academies."

Nothing he has done has made a squat bit of difference over the past few years. All his government's initiatives have been mainly cosmetic and have done little to change the fundamentals.

Academies are here to stay, though it would perhaps be accurate to say that sometime in the future after the schools are 'fixed', then there will be less of a dependence on them.

Some problems in public schools (high school) as I see them:

Overcrowding
Too many subjects- my students take 12
Not enough choice -almost none in fact
No standardised national exam for 1st and second graders
Students will always graduate regardless of ability and test scores
Lack of facilities -most of the classrooms are plain, dull sterile places. Computer labs while they exist in some schools are often under- utilised. Science labs are in name only, students aren't allowed to actually do any experiments themselves. Grass on school fields exist only in a few fortunate schools
Unfortunately it has been my experience that a significant number of Korean teachers can't teach, lack motivation or are counting down the years until retirement
Tests, including the KSAT is mostly mulitple choice and designed around memorizing.

[VanIslander]

Will speaking English well in Korea be considered a "special talent"?

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[Freezer Burn]

[fidel]

[tzechuk]

Who cares? He will be out in a year or two anyway!

[The Great Toad]

-----"No standardised national exam for 1st and second graders
Students will always graduate regardless of ability and test scores

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

Of course Rho would want to axe all the hagwons..because all the hagwons signify a huge failure on his part and on the government, in terms of the way they conduct public education in this country. He just can't owe up to the fact that it's the goverment's fault why there is such a need/desire for hagwon. Many of the Koreans I know denounce public education in this country and I have to agree with them.

[Red]

Oh, hagwons will be here in 10 years. Just not the English hagwons. They'll be replaced by Chinese haggies as the inevitable alliance/ economic dependence switchs from the US+Japan to China occurs.

[YoungLi]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

It reminds me of the 'hub of asia' affair, where all the money was spent on announcing Korea as a hub of Asia, and nothing was spent on actually making it the hub of Asia. Wishing makes it so. I don't see substantial efforts to change anything to make hogwons unnecessary in the article.

Ken:>

[The Great Toad]

Well I know they had very strict state teaching goals for all subjects and I had to list how I was teaching towards them for my lessons but other than a few standard state exams I did not think they had official tests year by year... I recall there was great controversy in some of the poorer schools when some US city adopted a sort of graduation test - and of course many students were failing it and then called it discriminatory, however I did not think they had a test you had to take every year to get to the next grade.... I know they did have tests that placed the kid in the next level say honors classes versus regular or intro ones but to be honest I never paid much attention to the goals and student performance I just liked to shoot off bombast and tallk about stories maybe why I am not teaching in the states anymore...