Koreana Summer 1991 (English)

A quarterl!J on Korean culture

KOREANA Takes Hat Off to Educators for Making Editor's Note I Miracle on Han Possible Greetings from the Publisher Lew Hyuck-ln 2 Profiles in Excellence 3 6 All in a Day of Yonsei U. Student's Life Where Learning Is Pursued in Earnest I0 Confucianism Molds Core of the System Park Sun-young I3 Modern System Came Hard Way to Korea Lee Won-ho 23 Facts about Education Presents No Shangri-La Moon Yong-lin 30 "Examination Hell" in Korea Revisited Kwak Byong-sun 45 Education Top Reason behind Rapid Growth Bae Chong-keun 56 Merits and Demerits of Korean Education Horace G. Underwood 63 Businesses Demand High-Skilled Grads Kim Yoon-tai 69 All about Koreans Studying Overseas Hong Sah-myung 80 S. Chang 86 Tokyo Korean School Proves Great Success Hong Woong-sun 89 Education Experts Offer Lofty Goals to President KOREANA Interview Needed: Brave New Philosophy Shin Se-ho 99 Review/Music Korea Also Pays Homage to Mozart Review/Dance Theatrical Dance Rapidly Improving Portrait of Young Days Cops Top Review/Cinema Lee Seung-ku I 07 Review/Theater Culture Ministry Fetes Theater Han Sang-chul I I0

Han Sang-woo Kim Chae-hyun Grand Bell Prix & Cinema Year

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Editor's Note

KOREANA A quarterly on Korean culture

Vol. 5- No.2 1991 KOREANA is published quarterly by INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL SOCIETY OF KOREA 526. 5-ga, Namdaemunno. Chung-gu, Seoul KOREANA was registered as a quarterly magazine with the Ministry of Information.

Republic of Korea, on August 8, 1987.

Registration No. Ba-1 03 3 ŠInternational Cultural Society of Korea 1991

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the International Cultural Society of Korea.

Seoul National University graduation ceremonies.

KOREANA Takes Hat Off To Educators For Making Miracle On Han Possible

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Lew Hyuck-In EDITORIAL BOARD: Choe Chungho. Hahn Man-young. Rhee Sang-woo. Yoo Young-ik EDITOR IN CHIEF: S. Chang ART DIRECTOR: Kim Shi-joong ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Song Jung-sok (text) Cho Sang-in. Ahn Chong-sun (design) CIRCULATION: Overseas/C. P. 0. Box 2 14 7. Seoul. Korea Tel: (02) 753-6464 Fax: (02) 757-2049

Domestic/C.P.O. Box 7852. Seoul. Korea Tel: (02) 274-5443, 269-2209 U.S. Subscriber Service: KOREANA P.O. Box 312 Hartsdale. New York 10530 Tel: (914) 472-4587 Fax: (914) 472-1195

Advertising inquires should be addressed to: AD Seoul. RM 60 I. Lions Bldg .. 50, 2-ga.

Chungmuro. Chung-gu, Seoul. Korea Tel: (02) 274-8336 Fax: (02) 274-8337 LAYOUT: Yong Ahn Graphics TYPESETTING: World Compugraphic PRINTING:

Samhwa Printing Co. (Ryu Sung-keun)

Printed in Korea. July 10. 1991 Price per copy: US$5 (W3,500)

ust as Rome was not built in a day. so was the Miracle on the Han. the stunning economic leap-forward acl)ieved in South Korea. Behind it is the awesome result of work accomplished by generations of dedicated Korean educators.

With the literacy rate standing almost as high as Japan 's. which is the loftiest in the world. the exceedingly refined quality of labor in Korea. coupled with the highly motivated government and corporate leadership. has helped to pull it all off.

In this issue. KOREANA pays homage to Korean educators and attempts to analyze the nation's schooling system. its merits and demerits. With contributions from an international parade of experts. we explore. for instance. a time-honored malady in the system that often is identified as an "'examination hell."

Of particular interest to our readership in the Third World might be the article provided in this issue by Educator Hong Woong sun. It masterfully sums up an exhaustive recommendation recently submitted to the Republic's president for improving the system on a heroic scale to cater to the obvious needs of the 21st Century.

In the end the determining factor might have a great deal to do with Korea's Confucian heritage. From one end of the country to the other. the populace has always displayed an almost instinctively deep sense of respect for the value of learning. That. I always feel. might hold the key to the success of Korea's case in education .

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

GREETINGS FROM THE PUBLISHER n March I this year. upon completion of my tenure as Korean ambassador to Portugal. I was honored to take up the job of president of the International Cultural Society of Korea and serve at the same time as publisher of KOREANA. Since its inception in 1972. our society has come a long way to be what it is today. and we are deeply indebted to those who have so warmly arid persistently helped its growth throughout these years. Our quarterly magazine. KOREANA. has also grown along with the expansion of our organization. Launched in 1987. KOREANA offered general information on Korean culture and arts to its readership. Starting f~om the Autumn issue of 1989. however. the journal's format took on a more specific approach. with each issue highlighting one aspect of Korea for in-depth examination. such as the study of Korean education. its merits and demerits. as featured in this issue.

Today. we have some 15.000 readers in 165 countries around the world. We are presently publishing English.

Spanish and Japanese editions of KOREANA. Our plan calls for adding Chinese and French editions as well in 1992.

I hope that our quarterly has been of interest an.d help to all of our international readers in acquainting themselves with Korea's culture and arts.

I would like to take this opportunity to request your continued kind patronage and counsel so that KOREANA may better serve its readership in the future.

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Hoping KOREANA promotes better understanding of Korean culture and arts. ~~

JJf-~ Hyuck-ln Lew Publisher

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

PROFILES IN EXCELLENCE The Ministry of Culture launched in July of last year a program for looking back on the cultural history of Korea and selecting one personage a month for commemoration.

KOREANA takes pleasure in featuring brief bios and related pictures of six persons chosen for the first half of this year.

Sunrise at Yuisang-dae. theme of Chong ' s masterpiece.

• Na Un-kyu.

NA

UN~KYU

(January)

CHONG CHOL (February)

I 902~I 937 pioneer cineaste. Na also was an independence fighter and was thrown into jail for a year and a half on suspicion of having engaged in clandestine anti-Japanese activities while he was still a high school student.

In his lifetime. Na directed 26 films. in 15 of which he was director. writer and leading actor. Among the best known of his works is Arirang. Arirang III. which he made in 1936. was the first talkie film produced and released in Korea. He was a fine artist with a mission. and that self-imposed mission was to keep the flames of independence aspirations burning in a Korea under Japanese rule.

His nom de plume: Chunsa.

A

I 536--I 593

C

hong was an incredible man who excelled both in poetry and politics in Korea under the mid-Choson Period. A brilliant Confucian scholar. he passed the forbiddingly competitive senior civil servant examination at age 26. an incredible feat back in those days. In turn he served as governor of a number of provinces and eventually became a member of the cabinet a position he was forced to give up as a result of a political intrigue. Right through, Chong produced superb verses in a variety of forms: kasa (narrative poetry) and shijo (lyric poetry). and enriched his nation's literary accomplishment.

His pen name: Songkang.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 199 1

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HAN YONG-UN (March) 1879~1944 -

nother incredible man whose life combined the careers of a Buddhist monk. poet and independence fighter. Ordained a priest in 1905. he denounced a 191 0 treaty through which Japan ordered an alliance between Korean and Japanese Buddhist priests.

First he was engaged in anti-Japanese movements in Manchuria. then returned to Korea to enlighten young people on the importance of regaining sovereignty for Korea. He was one of 33 leaders who organized the independence uprising on March I , 1919 against the Japanese colonial forces and produced On the Independence of Chason . one of his masterworks. in prison. Han died in 1944. one year before Korea regained independence.

His nom de plume: Manhae.

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 1991

Kim 's 1861 map and satellite photo of Korea .

KIM CHONG~HO (April) (?~ 1866)

T

he greatest cartographer in Korean history. he was a strictly self-made man. He

studied cartography by himself from childhood. Subsequently he spent 30 long years traveling from one end of the country to the other surveying and making maps. In 1861 he completed Taedong-yojido. the most accurate map of Korea up till then. Understandably Kim was convinced that no government could administer a country effectively without a good map. And it was precisely that which he himself produced. He kept on working and in 1866 came out with a monumental Taedongjiji atlas publication ( 12 volumes. 32 books) .

His nom de plume: Kosanja .

Chong Yak-yong.

PANG

CHONG~HWAN

(May)

CHONG Y AK.YONG (June)

1899~ 1933

1762~1836

great writer of stories for children. Pang also had a criminal record in the eyes of the Japanese colonial administration. At the time of the I 91 9 independence uprising. he was arrested in Seoul for having been involved in the printing of a college independence newspaper. On release from jaiL Pang went on to study children's literature at Tokyo University and in 1923 had his first collection of tales for children published under the title of Gift of Love. He was a prolific writer and produced a long list of books for children but died at the age of only 32.

His pen name: Sopa

ne of Korea's first Catholic converts.

Chong nevertheless was a Confucian scholar and specialized in what is known as Nee-Confucianism. Because of his religious faith. he was sent into exile several times. though he steadfastly refused to proselytize.

Through~ut his life. he continued his Confucian studies in an effort to produce a code of pragmatic ethics based on Confucianism.

The range of his scholarship was such that it even included some Western philosophical studies. Needless to say, he was w~ll-versed in Chinese classics. His major works include: Mokminshimso and Kyongseyupyo.

His pen name: Tasan.

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The first edition on Orini. or Children. which ¡ Pang launched in 1923 .

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Tasan-chodang. where Chong spent his days in exile composing his major works.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

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ALL IN A DAY OF YONSEI U. STUDENT'S LIFE Photographed here are various aspects of student life in and out of Seoul's prestigious Yonsei University campus. This is one of the largest universities in south Korea. The number of its students: 20,000.

The photos used here were taken by Kim Shi-joong or cameramen from Seoul's Joong¡ang Daily News.

Inside Yonsei library.

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

Labor service in countryside.

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Below left: Outdoor discussion meeting.

Below right: Medical students offering help.

Bottom: ··curtain time '' at outdoor theater.

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

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Right: Grandstand full of Yonsei students.

Below: Basketball stars at work.

Bottom left: Typical classroom scene.

Bottom right: Traditional dance performance.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

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WHERE LEARNING IS PURSUED IN EARNEST Youngsters admiring statue of King Sejong. inventor of Korea 's hangul alphabet.

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

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Below left: Elementary school boys learning to use computer.

Below right: High school students at historic site.

Bottom: High school English class.

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Below: Outdoor art class in progress.

Bottom left: Healthy trio of high school girls heading back home after class.

Bottom right High school girls learning traditional etiquette ..

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

CONFUCIANISM MOLDS CORE OF THE SYSTEM Its Legacies Cast Deep Influence Park

Sun~young

uddhism and Confucianism run side by side as two prominent mountain ranges on the terrain of Korean culture that is ingrained with shamanism from the primitive age. The cosmology of shamanism is structured on pragmatic values, as evidenced by the shaman mythology and ritual music which are preoccupied with wishes and needs in the life here and now, seldom referring to the previous life or the life hereafter. Enter here the new thoughts of Buddhism and Confucianism.

Their advent took place via China in the early part of the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C.A.D. 668) when Koguryo (38 B.C.-A.D. 668) in the north, Paekche ( 18 B.C.-A.D. 660) in the southwest and Shilla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935) in the southeast of the Korean Peninsula were each developing the institutional infrastructure of a state. The introduction of Buddhism can be pinpointed to A.D. 372. But the exact date of Confucianism's arrival cannot be ascertained. Its introduction was more graduaL beginning with the transmission of Chinese ideographs.

While the roots of Buddhism spread deeply throughout Korean culture in generaL its religious and philosophical ideals became ingrained with the politicaL ruling elite. Confucianism. a moral philosophy which placed much emphasis on harmonious human relationships summed up by the Way of in ("humanity" or "love"). provided ideal political ethics that advocated filial piety to one's parents and loyalty to one's monarch . In Confucian historiography, therefore. historical events were viewed from the perspective of Confucian moral values that were the basis for political ethics.

The first public educational institute in Korean history appeared in 372 in Koguryo with the establishment of a National Confucian Academy (Taehak). modeled after Chinese educational institutions. The establishment of the educational machinery for inculcating the Confucian ethos of loyalty to the king was essential for the creation of a bureaucratic structure for a growing nation which was in the process of completing a political system to reinforce the power of the sovereign.

Uttle is known about the educational system of Paekche due to a lack of written records. Shilla. on the other hand. had a youth training system dating from the very early years of its history and it eventually developed into hwarangdo, a public semi~fficial social educational system. Embracing elements of shamanism, Confucianism and Taoism, hwarangdo was basically a system for disciplining youths in Buddhism and martial arts. Inculcating loyalty and patriotism, it later served as a cohesive force to unify the Shilla people in their efforts to unify the Peninsula.

B

Park Sun-young was born in I 94 I and graduated from the Department of Buddhism. Dongguk University (B.A.). Dongguk Graduate School (M.A.) and Graduate School of Education. Korea University (M.A.) . He obtained his Ph.D. in 1980 at Dongguk University with a dissertation on educational philosophies. He has been a professor in the Department of Education. Dongguk University since 1977 and is presently Dean of College of Education. His publications include The Educational Philosophy of Buddhism and The Educational Philosophy.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

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Expansion of the territory following the unification called for a great increase in the number of bureaucrats to govern the nation with the authoritarian power of the throne. The National Confucian College (Kukhak) was thus established in 682 after the model of the Chinese public institute for higher Confucian education.

The organization and operation of Shilla's Kukhak is quite well known today, thanks to an abundance of historic records. Its curriculum. which focused on subjects keyed to the inculcation of loyalty to the monarch and filial piety to parents. was divided into three different courses of study based on elective subjects which varied from philosophy to history and literature.

Upon graduation from the College. students underwent a state examination in the Confucian classics and were appointed to public posts according to their grades. It was the first of a long tradition of state examinations for civil service recruits which later came to be known as kwago.

Though Confucianism dominated formal education during the Three Kingdoms and the Unified Shilla periods. its influence was more or less limited to the socially privileged elite class.

The general cultural climate at the grassroot level was dominated by Buddhism which became assimilated with the native shamanism. Buddhist monks were revered as preceptors in various segments of the society. Many of them were excellent teachers in politics. military tactics. philosophy and arts. It can be thus surmised that Buddhism was by far the most dominant element in informal education at the time.

Shortly after Shilla's unification of the peninsula. a Koguryo refugee named Tae Cho-yong founded a new state called Parhae in a broad area from the northern part of the Korean Peninsula to northeast Asia that was once Koguryo territory. thereby opening the age of SouthNorth Dynasties in which Parhae in the north juxtaposed Shilla in the south.

IDEOLOGICAL BASIS Towards the end of the millennium of its foundation. Shilla became increasingly beleaguered by social unrest caused by ceaseless political strife and a rigid social system. With the waning of the power of the central government. the landed gentry in the countryside emerged as a powerful political and financial force. The individualistic doctrine of the then popular Contemplative School of Buddhism. which preached that any man could reach the Buddha nature through meditation. provided an ideological basis for the assertion of their political independence from the central government.

Shilla thus crumbled and was eventually absorbed by Koryo. a kingdom that came into being as a result of struggles among the local powers. About this time Parhae too was destroyed by the Khitans that were expanding their periphery of power to the south from northeast Manchuria .

Koryo (918-1392) succeeded Shilla in many ways including its cultural and social structures.

It relied heavily on Buddhism for its religious benefits and aspired for the realization of Confucian political ideals rooted in moral values. Generally classified as the "Middle Ages" in Korean history, Koryo nevertheless was basically no different from Shilla in its educational system.

The school system was reorganized gradually to effect the establishment of a national university (Kukchagam) in the capital and local public schools (hyanggyo) in the countryside, all keyed to inculcating Confucian ideals and precepts.

Kukchagam. the highest educational institute in the nation. was similar to Shilla's Kukhak except that its curriculum included not only Confucian classics but also practical studies such as law. calligraphy, accounting and. in the later period. military tactics to meet the administrative needs of the nation. The university came to include six colleges and. later with the addi-

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

Teacher with hat at yesteryear's Korean school.

tion of military studies. seven. classified according to the field of studies and the social standing of the students. A kind of graduate school was also set up for continued study.

The hyanggyo in the countryside taught mainly Chinese classics and history. The Kukchagam in the capital took care of advanced education. and the hyanggyo served much like today's middle school. In the later years similar academies were set up in the capital as well. first in the east and west parts of the town and later in the north. south and center of the town . They were not called hyanggyo. which meant "country school." but haktang. meaning "academy."

Private academies and village schools flourished during the mid-Koryo period as a number of outstanding scholars founded their own schools to give lectures on Confucian studies. Twelve of them distinguished themselves. offering a high quality education that sometimes challenged the standards of the national university. These private academies were called Sh'iflido. the Twelve Assemblies. and each identified with the name of the master who founded it.

It is not clear when sodang. or the village school. made its appearance on the Korean educational scene. though some scholars tend to date it all the way back to the Koguryo period.

However. historic records show that sodang prevailed throughout the country by the mid-Koryo period Their curriculum and quality varied from the rudimentary reading and writing of Chinese ideographs to advanced studies nearing college level.

Education in applied studies was systemized to produce enough resources for low-ranking bureaucrats towards the late Koryo period. Kukchagam. the National University. was reorganized to concentrate on advanced studies in Confucianism by removing law. calligraphy and accounting from its curriculum completely.

These three subjects and seven other non-confucian studies including medicine. music. dance. foreign languages. and astronomy were taught at concerned government agencies where a proficiency in such was a requisite for administrative work. A similar system was in existence as early as in the Shilla period.

The major event in the educational history of Korea in the late Koryo period was the introduction of Neo-Confucianism from China. From the early years of the period. Buddhism and Confucianism coexisted without much conflict. the former enjoying precedence over the latter.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

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Renowned Confucian scholars. who believed Confucian thought was no match for Buddhism in philosophical depth. were also very well versed in Buddhist scriptures. With the advent of NeG-Confucianism. a philosophical approach to Confucianism that offers a metaphysical explanation for the origins of man and the universe. Koryo scholars began to reassess the Buddhist ideologies from a fresh perspective.

DECLINE OF BUDDHISM Coupled with the rampant corruption of Buddhism and the excessive possession of land

by Buddhist temples to the point of causing a grave threat to the national treasury, Buddhism became the object of growing repudiation by the Neo-Confucian scholars. These Confucianists eventually masterminded the foundation of a new nation named Chason that superseded Koryo.

Chason. which was founded in 1392. adopted Confucianism as its state doctrine from the outset and. while repressing Buddhism. endeavored to ingrain Confucian mores and values in the everyday life of its people. Whereas Confucianism was never static in its home country of China but changed in pace with the changing times. it was very static in Korea. NeoConfucianism. intolerant of any changes or revisions. was the mainstream of Confucian studies and thought for five centuries.

Neo-Confucianism explains every existence in the universe with the dual components of i. which might be compared to Logos. and ki. which might be compared to energy. Actions. reactions. and matters are of the sphere of ki while the principles or the laws behind them and the formative elements of the matters are of the sphere of i.

It explains. somewhat analogous of Practical Reason in Kantian philosophy, that the i side of human nature has four endowments of sympathy, righteousness. humbleness. and wisdom to divine the right from the wrong. while the ki side is quite detrimental. being related with material things and self-centered desires. It all sums down to a moral philosophy that expostulates for a moralistic government oriented in i when it is applied to human relations.

Confucianists call an ideal man a "sage" when he has sublimated his ki and fulfilled the state of i and the one who seeks the way to the sage a kunja. or a "great man." Sonbi. or the literati. much idealized in traditional Korean society. is another name for a great man. The literati or great men strive to attain perfection of the i. and at the same time. to lead people in the right direction .

The first objective is reached through the accomplishment of learning and moral selkultivation. which are mutually complementary factors; learning without self-cultivation results in an accumulation of dead knowledge while a practice of self-cultivation without learning often ends in a tunnel vision. As for leading people in the right direction. Neo-Confucianism specifies that it can be fulfilled through education and good government.

In the traditional society of Chason. therefore. the Way a kunja should rightly take was to serve in the bureaucracy so as to lead people in the right direction through moralistic governing and. upon retirement. to serve as a teacher to educate the youths. A kunja in short was at the same time a scholar. a self-searching student. an educator. and a politician.

The literati. or sonbi. were naturally the ruling class of the Confucian-dominated society. Below them came the middle class that included low ranking officials. and a rung farther down were the commoners engaged in farming, trades and industries. At the lowermost level of the social strata were the lowborn. the slaves and the outcasts.

Vertical class order and norms were of paramount importance. the function of each class being defined and observed with unquestioned rigidity. A sonbi was a student seeking selfcultivation and also a scholar devoted to Confucian or. to be more specific. Neo-Confucian

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

studies. and was never to engage in menial labor. Likewise. it was the Way of a commoner to work hard in his trade and never to indulge in books.

The predominance of Confucianism brought forth an efflorescence of Neo-Confucian studies which surpassed Chinese scholarship in the field while. on the other hand. it stifled any possibility of scientific or technological development. It also gave birth to the general social tendency to prevaricate menial labor.

The kwago. or national civil service examination. was institutionalized already in the early years of Koryo as a means of recruiting government officials. During the Choson period the system took on an even greater importance and was enforced with strict objectivity to ensure equal opportunity for the members of the ruling class whose number increased greatly from the previous period. The kwago was thought to be the gateway to success for Koreans who were characterized by a strong worldly sense of values.

Furthermore. success in the examination was regarded not only as a personal honor but as an honor of the whole clan and the most desirable way to practice filial duty to one's parents. In other words. success in the kwago was the way a son could honor his parents. While such an attitude promoted educational zeal and scholarly activities in general. it also had the negative effect of debasing scholarship to a means to prepare for the national examination.

KWAGO A closer look at the kwago. or national civil service examination. is in order to understand the educational system of the Choson period. As mentioned before. the kwago system dates back to the early Koryo period. and its organization and operation remained more or less the same in the later period.

The state examination was conducted under three categories of civil. military and miscellaneous. Though the system prescribed the holding of an examination once every three years. it was actually held more often because special examinations were often given in between to celebrate or commemorate national events.

Needless to say. there was class discrimination to quality candidates for each of the three categories.

The examinations for civil service were conducted on two levels: the licentiate or lower level (sokwa) and the erudite or higher level (taekwa). The licentiate examination. a preliminary test to qualify candidates for the taekwa. was held locally throughout the country and was offered in two kinds: the classics licentiate examination (saengwonkwa) to test proficiency in Confucian Classics. philosophy and history. and the literary licentiate examination (chinsakwa) to test literary proficiency in composing various forms of Chinese literature.

Candidates who passed the classics examination were called saengwon and those who passed the literary examination were called chinsa. Both were qualified to apply for the higher level taekwa examination. to enter Songgyun-gwan. the National Confucian Academy in the capital. and were publicly acknowledged as a true sonbi. There were also given the choice to start a civil service career.

The higher level erudite examination was aptly called taekwa. or the Big Examination. because it was the veritable gate to high ranking government positions. Technically. all saengwon. and chinsa in the country were eligible to apply but those currently studying at the National Confucian Academy naturally had the advantage. The candidates were again tested in their knowledge of the Confucian Classics and literature and also had to write an essay on government policy making.

Those who passed the examination had yet one more test. this time in the presence of the

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 1991

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king. and thus called the chonshi. or the Palace Examination . It was the final step by which the candidates were individually ranked . It was according to the grade in this final examination that the candidate was to be appointed to a government post.

Military service examinations were also conducted in three steps: the regional. the central and the palace examinations. Martial arts were the most important subject in the regional examination. The second examination at the capital was conducted in three courses: the Confucian Classics. military science and an optional subject. The palace examination required a mastery in martial arts and a comprehensive knowledge of military science. Candidates were mostly from military families and sometimes low ranking government officials.

Other state examinations were sweepingly called the Miscellaneous Examinations. alluding that they were unimportant. not the kwago that really counted. The use of the word "miscellaneous" is quite symbolic of the negative Confucian attitude of the Choson society toward anything less than Confucian studies.

These "unimportant" subjects included foreign languages. medicine. astronomy. law. geography. etc. Examinations in them were conducted in two stages: first at the regional level and the second examination at the capital to recruit officials from the successful candidates of the first examination. Most candidates came from the middle class .

The kwago system described above provides some idea of the educational pattern of the Choson period. Public education was divided into two distinctive categories: Confucian studies and studies in things other than Confucianism. Confucian studies were studied at public educational institutes and other things were taught at workshops set up by concerned government agencies.

As for the public school system. there were four haktang in Seoul and a hyanggyo in each county throughout the country. both somewhat equivalent to today's high schools in function and educational level. The haktang operated in the same fashion as in the Koryo period except that their number was reduced to four. the decrepit Northern Haktang having been rendered defunct over the years.

Hyanggyo. on the other hand. was accorded great care and respect as its good maintenance and operation were one of the seven major responsibilities of a county chief and thus was directly related to his promotion or demotion. Needless to say. such a policy in relation to hyanggyo was the outcome of the government's efforts to disseminate Confucianism through the public educational institutes.

The curriculum of Songgyun-gwan. haktang and hyanggyo consisted mainly of reading and understanding Confucian classics. literary writing and calligraphy. Students in Songgyun-gwan were encouraged to cultivate their learning through lively discussions and were graded in five distinctive categories.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Being the only national university, Songgyun-gwan was housed in befittingly magnificent buildings complete with a library and other auxiliary facilities. Four main buildings housing a Confucian shrine. two dormitories and a lecture hall stood together facing the square courtyard in the center.

In the shrine were kept memorial tablets of Confucius. his disciples and Korean and Chinese Confucian sages. For Confucian academies. inclusive of the hyanggyo. were not just facilities for academic pursuits but sacred places where Confucian rites were held for religious worship and self-cultivation. The haktang in the capital. however. did not have Confucian shrines because their students attended the Confucian rites held at the Songgyun-gwan.

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General view of Todong Sow~:m. historic school.

The students of Sonqqyun-qwan were accorded great privileges. the student body enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy. They were allowed to voice their ideas on national policies. sometimes to the extent of making an open protest in a collective move.

Two kinds of private educational organizations prevailed in the Chason period: sowon and sodanq. Sowon. or private Confucian academy. was an educational system that had long been in existence in China. It was introduced to Korea during the Chason period by Chu Se-bung. the chief of Punggi County, who established an academy in his county called "Paegundong Sowon" modeled after the Chinese institute.

It consisted of a shrine to hold memorial rituals every spring and autumn to Ahn Hyang. a Koryo scholar who introduced Neo-Confucianism to Korea. and a lecture hall for educational activities. The king accredited the academy by awarding it the name Sosu Sowon. written on a signboard. together with a considerable number of Confucian Classics.

Encouraged by this. numerous private academies with shrines dedicated to deceased statesmen or Confucian scholars sprouted across the country.

Sowon differed from Sonqqyun-qwan or hyanqqyo in that it was a private shrine which functioned also as an educational institute for youths. Here too the curriculum consisted of Confucian Classics. Neo-Confucian commentaries. and literary composition training. Unlike public schools. it was usually located in a scenic place removed from residential areas and the students were allowed to pursue academic refinement in a relatively liberal atmosphere.

Local literati centered their scholarly activities and formed schools of thought of their own around the sowon. It was often the starting point for the formation of public opinion that affected the policy making of the central government.

Later on. the system deteriorated to impose itself on the masses and became a hotbed of factional strife so that towards the end of the Chason period all private sowon in the country except for 4 7 historically important ones were abolished by a royal decree.

The flourishing of private academies led to the deterioration of hyanqqyo and the Sonqqyunqwan to the point that there emerged a movement to institutionalize a training program for a certain period for the candidates who passed the taekwa in the state civil service examination. Though sowon were rated a step lower than Sonqqyun-qwan. some obviously attained a great stature offering quality education comparable to that of the national university.

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Sodang. the village school. which was already ubiquitous during the Koryo period. became even more so in the Choson Kingdom. there being at least one or two in every village of 20 to 30 families. There were various forms. Some schools were set up in sarang. the men's quarters of a private residence. which the master of the house used for teaching a few village children. Sometimes. villagers pitched in to operate a school and invited a teacher for their children.

Though it was an elementary school with the purpose of preparing children to advance to the hyanggyo or haktang. the sodang curriculum was not always elementary. sometimes extending beyond the training of rudimentary Chinese ideographs to the Confucian classics of middle school level depending on the academic accomplishment of the teacher. Its students also varied from children aged five or six 6 years to adults. A teaching assistant system with the senior students helping the lower ones was quite common when there were many students.

In a typical class. the teacher read and interpreted the Confucian textbook written in Chinese ideographs The student was required to repeat after him and to practice it at home until he memorized it. Unless he was capable of reciting the previous lesson to perfection the next day. the student was not allowed to advance to the next one.

Sodang contributed greatly to an increased public literacy rate and to the instillation of Confucian mores and traditions in Korean life. Korea is quite remarkable in that educational institutes were widespread from ancient times . In the late Choson period. educational institutes endeavored to keep abreast with the changes of the times. adding new subjects to the curriculum. There even emerged schools for the children of slaves and lowborns.

HANGUL Though blessed with their own language. Koreans were without a writing system. having relied from ancient times on the Chinese script for any academic and intellectual activities.

Chinese ideographs. however. were far from suitable for phonetic representation of the Korean language. The grammatical structures of the two languages were basically very different from each other. Furthermore. it entailed a great deal of time and effort for Koreans to become reasonably proficient in Chinese letters because of their staggering volume.

These inconveniences prompted King Sejong (r. 14 I 8-50) to invent a Korean script easy for his people to learn and use. After studying the writing systems of foreign countries such as the Uighur script Mongolian script and Sanskrit as well as Chinese and Korean phonology, Sejong and his scholars developed a writing system known as hangul and promulgated it in 144 3.

Originally consisting of 28 phonetic symbols. I 7 consonants and II vowels. hangul is based on a tripartite division of the syllable into initial. medial and final. each symbol representing one sound value. It is a system indeed easy for anyone to master within days.

With the introduction of hangul. Confucian Classics and Buddhist scriptures were actively translated and disseminated to the public. Easy to learn. the new script was welcomed by the masses and especially by women . The government's efforts for the edification of the masses was much facilitated as educational materials were written in hangul. Sometimes it was included as a requisite in the state civil service examinations. Though the literati did not show much appreciation or respect for the facile writing system. they too used it to correspond with the female members of their families.

Thanks to hangul. Korea enjoyed a comparatively low illiteracy rate even before the advent of the modern education system.

The Confucian-oriented society of Choson was a patrilineal society of extended families ruled by a strict patriarchy. The relationship between men and women is graphically exemplified by the traditional custom of referring to men as the "outside" and women. the "inside."

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Even in the housing arrangement men resided in the outer part of the house while women resided within the inner part of the building. Men were concerned with the business outside the house, the household affairs being below the sphere of their attention . The entire home economics and management thus fell on the lap of the women. Confined in the inner part of the house, women were not allowed to concern themselves with what went on beyond the walls of their house, rarely going beyond the walls except on a very special occasion .

WOMEN Women's prerogative, it was believed, was to serve men. Academic achievements for women were totally unnecessary and even dangerous for it would no doubt jeopardize the feminine virtue of obedience to men.

Women were thus thoroughly excluded from any schools, private or public. It is not going too far to say that the entire education for women consisted of home training in womanly manners and virtues, skills needed to carry out household chores such as cooking, laundry, sewing, embroidery, preparation for parties, and preparation for family ancestral rituals.

The Confucian norms enumerated four essential virtues for a woman to become an affectionate mother and good-natured wife: chastity and loyalty to her husband, discrete manners and quiet speech, unadorned yet clean appearance, and proficiency in home management skills.

To instill these virtues in women the government published hangul versions of various collections of admonitory episodes and biographies of exemplary women. Parents would write admonitions for their daughters of marriageable age to bear in mind. Some scholar-gentlemen would teach their daughters at home as much as the Lesser Learning (Sohak), a Confucian ethics textbook that described the etiquettes and dispositions required for ideal "inside" persons.

But the general academic education for women was seldom extended beyond the hangul script and the rudimentary Chinese ideographs.

Women's education in the Chason period in short was an irregular one at best and was conducted at home, or more accurately, acquired naturally through everyday life. If there was any conscious effort for women's education, it was with the intention of instilling in their virtuous mind the subservient roles of women in the male chauvinistic Confucian society.

It was only in the late I 9th century or towards the closing years of the Chason Kingdom that women began to be recognized as independent human beings by a handful of the forerunners of the time.

In the meantime, Chason had a social educational structure centered by a local administrative chief. hyanggyo and sodang. Most of the villages and self-governing educational programs were closely linked with public and private educational institutes.

Instillation of Confucian mores in the mind of the people was one of the major responsibilities of the local administrative chief. In the didactic Confucian regime which professed moralistic rule, it was a primary objective of the government to acclimatize ways of life of the populace in general to the Confucian mores and values.

It was thus the responsibility of the local administrative chief to propagate hangul publications on ethical codes and manners for women as well as educational materials, also in hangul. to advance farming, sericulture and other professional skills.

VILLAGE SCHOOL A local administrative chief was also the supervisor of the educational activities in his jurisdiction. He was directly or indirectly involved in the operation of hyanggyo and disciplinary programs led by the village elders. Though not very often, the hyanggyo printed books on ethics

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and manners for children and women and offered a special educational course for them. The teacher of the village school (sodanq) was always revered as a learned person and his counsel was very much sought after by the villagers.

Sodanq was also the base of operation of hyanqyak. or the village code for cooperation and discipline. This community system originated in China and was refined by Chu Hsi. who initiated Neo-Confucianism. It was introduced to Korea during the Koryo period together with NeoConfucianism. Several attempts had been made by the government and literati-officials to put the hyanqyak system into effect from the early years of Choson. But it was not until the midChoson period that it was spread throughout the country under the influences of Yi Hwang and Yi L two champions of Neo-Confucian philosophies.

The gist of the hyanqyak code was a mode of local self-government infused with a spirit of basic justice for all and mutual assistance in time of need. Enforted under the leadership of respected village elders. the code promoted the established social morals and customs. It was thus a cooperative which was at the same time a self-governing local educational system. Its legacy is still easily found in the country.

TRADITION The Confucian society of Choson was one where things and deeds were evaluated in the moralistic perspective. The statesmanship and education throughout the 500 years of the kingdom were directed to ingrain moralistic values in the populace.

Morals here meant a certain order in human relationship and this order was realized through the rules of propriety which meant details of etiquette and ceremonies and. in a broader sense. proper attitude and expression. They defined the role of each member of the society to play in propriety with his or her name. i.e. a father or a mother, a husband or a wife, a son or a daughter. a teacher or a student a ruler or a subject a friend. a senior or a junior. and so on.

However diversified roles a person had in his rank and status, it was the way as a human being that he or she enacted all of them appropriately with corresponding responsibilities.

The rectification of names was the paramount creed of life for Choson people and especially for the sonbi who adhered to it with life. Such cultural tradition is still very much alive today, and the dilemma of Korean society lies in the incongruity of this tradition and modern industrialization.

Education on names and the responsibilities they entail was extremely thorough in both theory and practice. Neo-Confucianism acting as its underlying philosophy. It was structured on the basis of rigid class distinction and male-centered values. The social tendency of authoritarianism. sexual discrimination and aversion to menial labor is the Confucian legacy that is still very much felt in educational sectors today.

The educational tradition that placed utmost importance on the responsibilities corresponding to the names caused the Korean mind to become less understanding and compromising.

Even today an uncompromising person is not deemed an extremist but is respected and applauded as a man of integrity.

But the Confucian educational tradition has provided Koreans with a reasonable way of thinking, a strong moral sense, and a zeal for education by stressing that man can be a man only through education. The Confucian precepts and educational tradition to which the Choson society adhered with such unmitigated thoroughness thus has not just negative points to be discarded and surmounted but positive sides to be developed and perpetuated as well.~

(This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation.)

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MODERN SYSTEM CAME HARD WAY TO KOREA Missionaries Gave Great Help Lee Won-ho

orea fostered and maintained down through the ages a unique educational tradition.

But while the Western world was changing the world rapidly by expanding its influence through the exploration of new sea routes and the development of science and technology, even in the 19th century Korea chose to remain in seclusion and tightly closed to the changes outside.

In Korea. priority then was given to the job of maintaining its traditional educational system and curricula . It was unthinkable to raise any objection to the preservation of that tradition or to seek its revision.

A few pragmatic scholars nevertheless attempted to do something about this situation. a situation characterized by excessive conservatism. Yi Ik (1681-1763) was one of them . He strove to introduce the Western system of education. albeit indirectly. to Korea . Then came Choe Han-gi (1803-1877) who not only imported something of the West's science and technology btlt also enabled a few of his compatriots to come into contact with Western culture and civilization as described in books from China.

In spite of these efforts and the West's mounting pressure on Korea to open up its doors to the rest of the world. the authorities in Seoul resisted until at last they were forced to give up. Thus was signed the Kanghwado Treaty with Japan. a contract for initiating international intercourse at altogether disadvantageous terms for Korea. in 1876. As a matter of fact. Japan's gunboat diplomacy gave Korea no choice but to sign it.

Thus too started. in a whirlpool of confusion. Korea's process of absorbing Western civilization and with it the Western method of education. While almost all of Asia and Africa came under the influence of the West's civi lization and military might the case of Korea was complex in that it was victimized by Japan. a portion of Asia that had rapidly mastered the intricacies of Western style imperialism.

K

The Chason Kingdom. after its 500-year history, plunged into a state of chaos ma_inly because of its failure to cope with the advent of Western civilization. Amid the resulting confusion. work got going for adopting the Western educational system.

In 1881. the government of the Chason Kingdom sent to Japan a group of observers to study at first hand the merits and demerits of Western civilization . Sure enough. it was compelled to do something because of an endlessly escalating conflict between confirmed conservatives dead set on preserving traditional values and radical advocates calling for sweeping reforms in the country.

Born in 1936. Lee Won-ho graduated from the Department of Pedagogy, Pusan National University, and received his Ph.D. from his alma mater. He formerly served as president of the Korea Educational History Research Association. He has authored many books. including The History of Korean Technical Education and The History of Educational Policy during the Nation's Opening. Lee currently is dean of the Graduate School of Education at Pusan National University and wncurrently teaches at the university's Teachers College.

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It must be noted. though. that there existed a large number of intellectuals in and out of Seoul who persisted in expounding the need of accepting Western civilization. They spearheaded a movement for introducing Western civilization to Korea . The fact is. Korea experienced. in a strictly limited manner one form of Western education system even before the country opened its doors to the rest of the world.

SEMINARY In 1885 "St. joseph's Seminary" was opened in Pongyang village. located deep in North Chungchong province. south of Seoul. This was while a merciless persecution against Catholics was under way in Korea.

The seminary was run by a handful of Catholic fathers and missionaries to educate future priests from among Koreans. Philosophy and theology formed the backbone of the seminary's curriculum. But the students also learned Latin. biology, geography. medicine and other subjects as well as Chinese characters . The school's curriculum amounted to a sharp departure from those of other traditional halls of learning in Korea that focused on Confucian studies and Chinese classics.

But the impact of the seminary on education in Korea was entirely insignificant and for good reason. The seminary itself was a clandestine operation.

In 1882. a bright trio of Koreans- Park Young-hyo. Kim Ok-gyun and So Kwang-bom visited Japan for a six-month sojourn to observe remarkable developments achieved in the country after the Meiji Reform. They were deeply impressed by what they saw and experienced in Nippon. The next year. Kim Ok-gyun was appointed to represent Korea in talks on whalir'tg rights. Kim sold the rights for 2 5.000 won and with that fund financed studies in Japan by 61 Korean youths including So Chae-pil.

This spelled an epochal arrangement. For the first time in the annals of Chason Kingdom were so many Korean youths sent overseas for studies. This underlined Korea's positive commitment to adopt modern education.

Korea had to build itself up as a modern state in a hurry. That task could only be carried out with young people armed with a great deal of modern knowledge. In addition. Wonsan Haksa (school) opened in the port city of Wonsan (now in North Korea) as the first modern school in this country.

Wonsan was a port opened under the provisions of the Kanghwado Treaty and had districts for Japanese residents. The massive immigration of Japanese merchants clearly ran counter to the national interests of Korea .

What to do? Civic leaders of the province asked their governor. Chong Hyon-sok. to open a modern school for youths and pledged to provide necessary financial support for it. With the help of 0 Yun-jung, the economic policy-maker for Korea's northwestern parts. and Chong Hon-si. an official in charge of trade at Wonsan. Chong founded the school. Wonsan Haksa. in 1883. Both the motive behind the establishment of the school and the curriculum make it clear that Wonsan Haksa was the first place in Korea where the modern system of education was enforced.

At first Wonsan Haksa had "literary arts" and '"martial arts" classes. with the former concentrating on Confucian studies and the latter on military subjects. Both classes taught arithmetic. physics. agriculture. sericulture and mining. Later. foreign languages. law and geography were added.

It was a remarkable accomplishment particularly so when you consider the fiercely critical stance taken by conservative elements who had been convinced that Confucianism was every-

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Formally attired teachers and students at Paeiae schoo. which was opened in 1886 in Seoul.

thing that should be taught at school. Wonsan Haksa indeed blazed a trail as a pioneer.

The tide turned in full scale toward modern education in no time. as Christianity was officially permitted in Korea. following the opening of diplomatic relations with western countries.

Consider this episode about Christian missionary H. N. Allen. A surgeon by training, he saved the life of a powerful conservative personage, Min Young-ik, after he was critically wounded in the Kapsin Chongbyon (coup d'etat) on December 4. 1884. Subsequently Min offered a large sum of cash to express his deep sense of gratitude. Allen declined the offer but proposed instead to open a hospital. Min accepted the proposal. In April next year. the first modern hospitaL Kwanghyewon, was launched. The following year. 16 young Koreans were admitted to a school attached to the hospitaL Korea's first school of Western medicine.

In June 1886. H.G. Apenzeller. a U.S. Methodist missionary, opened Paejae Haktang (school).

In the beginning. the school taught English and world history and then added the Bible. English reading and grammar, Chinese classics. mathematics. geometry, geography, physics. chemistry, music. fine art. gymnastics. health and physiology.

In 1890. "Paejae Haktang norms" were announced. This featured Chinese studies. English. astronomy, geography, physiology, handicraft and the Bible. The norm reflected the traditional recognition of the importance of Chinese studies and the efforts to balance with it the weight of such "western studies" as math and physics.

CONCUBINE Now came the schooling of women, that so long had been ignored in Korea. Christian missionaries once again started it all.

In May 1886, American Methodist missionary W.B. Scranton began providing one (I) Korean woman with the benefits of modern education. That student in fact was a concubine. Then

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in June 1887. Presbyterian missionary A.) . Ellers opened Chongsin Women's School. It took more than ten years for the indefatigable Mrs. Scranton to make her private class into a prestigious school. Ewha Haktang - now Ewha Woman's University. It represented her victory in her battle against the traditional attitude in Korea - "respect for men and disdain for women" - and the lack of understanding about the Western system of education.

At first Mrs. Scranton's Ewha concentrated on teaching English and the Bible. The scope was gradually expanded to include reading, writing. composition and letter-writing in Korean. physiology. vocal music and organ playing. The curriculum in 1892 featured studies of Chinese characters. English. mathematics. geography. history. science and gymnastics. There is no doubt that Ewha. Chongsin and other brand-new schools for women touched off a totally new wave of education in Korea.

Finally the government came into the picture. An institution by the name of the Royal English School was opened in September 1886 with government funding. Three Americans. including H.B. Hulbert. were invited as its teachers. Now modern education was a public affair in Korea.

The "daily learning schedule" included reading. writing. grammar. mathematics. foreign language. agriculture and political history of the world with an emphasis on treaties and military matters.

We have so far observed the status of Western-style schools and their curricula before the Kabo Kyongjang (Reform) in 1894. The birth of these schools inevitably caused serious conflicts with the existing system of education and the traditional culture of Korea behind it. Take for instance sharp reactions on the part of the mighty conservative camp. They perceived some practical values of Western civilization . But essentially they considered it barbaric. And they would not change that view .

CONFLICT Naturally. they attached paramount values to the studies of Confucianism and Chinese classics. After all. those values dominated Korea through the past thousand years. The most important thing in life was to have the the Confucian ideal man. Mastery of the Chinese classics was everything for passing the stiffly competitive kwago. the senior civil servant examination.

And that test was the very basis of the sensitive bureaucratic system in Korea.

Small wonder. Not many youths in Korea found it rewarding to take up Western studies.

Many episodes underlined the point. For instance. in 1896 when Education Minister Shin Kison banned the teaching of the Korean language. a large disgruntled group of teach<;:rs and college students tendered their resignations en masse.

Shin by no means was a reformist. Consider his Confucian Scriptures to be taught at public schools. In the controversial book. Shin said that Christianity was "a shallow custom of the barbarians." Foreign missions in Seoul vehemently protested. The protest was acknowledged.

Shin was fired. His books were confiscated .

But that was not the last time that Shin made news. He was reappointed Education Minister in 1900 and again became the target of bitter public criticism by insisting this time that foreign language schools be closed down. Shin's antics of course are absurd. So too is the fact that foreign powers interfered even in the selection of textbooks in Korea. Then again incontrovertible is something else: in spite of his sensitive position in the government Shin had all but failed to grasp the realities of the world.

The system in the U.S. cast a notable influence on the new schools. So much so that the Royal English School and other institutions altogether bypassed the Korean language and in-

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digenous culture in their curricula.

When it came to women's education. things at times were comic. Before sending their daughters to any of the new schools. the parents plunged deep into soul-searching. Even highly educated parents agonized over the fact that foreigners served as their daughters¡ teachers.

And what would the neighbors say?

As mentioned earlier. the first epoch-making student at Mrs. Scranton's Ewha Haktang was a concubine of an incumbent minister. The woman might have attended the school in the hope of assisting her husband by learning English. But she called it quits before she had attained any kind of proficiency in the language.

The second student was an orphan and the third a child of an extremely poor family. The lessons were given free of charge. That was not all. Free too were room and board. This kind of generosity did not prevent some parents from trying to get their daughters back home on the grounds that they could not trust strangers from the West. Only when high-ranking government officials guaranteed the girls' safety were the anxieties of the parents put to rest - but not always. In the case of Hansong Girls School. a primary course opened a little while later. the principal had to visit individual families to "recruit pupils ...

It took time to correct the ways of the male-oriented society. It took indeed tons of time for women's school education to come of age. Among the newly imported Western subjects was sports which did not exist in the traditional curriculum. In Korea any routine that involved physical exercise had been regarded as belonging to the lowest class. For sonbi or scholars and intellectuals. perspiring or engaging in excessive physical exercise was not comme il faut - ungentlemanly.

The father of a Paejae Haktang student after seeing his son playing soccer with other boys. declared to the teacher. "The next time my son has to do such hard work. please let me know.

I will send one of my servants to do it for him. .. Even in the I 920s. girl students' gymnastics at Ewha made headlines. The conflict between Western and Korean cultures died hard.

MODERN SCHOOLS Korea all but failed to cope with international politics around the turn of the century. In the end. Japan "annexed" it. History records distressing goings-on. how the royal family lived in want how upper-class members were selfish. how solidarity was all but gone between the nobility and the common people.

The situation became so critical that even the staunchest of conservatives and the most radical of reformists found it imperative to form a coalition to battle the ever-growing threat to the nation's sovereignty.

Here modem education proved to be of great help. So too was Christianity. They both proved . to be a source of fresh inspiration for establishing a modern social order in place of feudalism .

Soon Tongnip Hyophoe (Independence Club). along with other organizations for seeking social reform. came into being.

After the Tonghak (Eastern Studies) Farmers¡ War in I 894. a new group of anti-government and anti-Japanese fighters appeared. They were called uibyonq or the righteous army soldiers.

The soldiers were led usually by conservative Confucian scholars in the countryside and engaged in a succession of uprisings against Japanese authorities.

Anti-Japan movements in Manchuria. Siberia and the U.S. were joined by a large number of graduates from modern schools in Korea itself. Some of these graduates stayed home and worked to expand the scope of modern education in the belief that good schooling was a must in building the wealth and power of Korea. Between 3.000 and 5,000 schools had now been opened.

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Many of them hung a signboard that proudly read "school" on the outside. Actually they were small sodang buildings where Confucian classes used to be conducted. The astonishing jump in the number of new schools reflected the people's deep conviction in the merits of modern education.

From the latter half of the 1880s. social enlightenment campaigns were kicked off by the Tongnip Hyophoe and Manmin Kongdonghoe (public association) for inducing government reform and more civil rights.

A drive for independence spread throughout the country. Books and pamphlets on patriotic themes were put out one after another . Popular were biographies of historic Korean heroes like Admiral Yi Sun-shin. who tore a Japanese armada to pieces in the 16th century. and Marshal Ulchimundok of the Koguryo Kingdom (3 7 B.C.-668). So too were books on the histories of Vietnam and Poland. and the French Revolution.

Taehan Chaganghoe (Korea Self-strengthening Society). which succeeded to the Honjong Yonguhoe (Society for the Study of Constitutional Government). was born in 1905 to promote human rights. It strongly advised the government to start compulsory education for all children . The society. led by Chang Chi-yon. proclaimed self-strengthening of the Korean people for the sake of the nation's independence.

COLONIAL PERIOD In 1905 Japan forced Korea to sign the Protectorate Treaty. depriving it of diplomatic rights. disbanding its armed forces. taking control of prisons and appointing Japanese nationals as vice ministers of all ministries. In 1910. Japan "annexed" Korea. and the colonial rule lasted until 1945 .

Educational zeal. though. continued to be exceedingly strong. So much so that Mrs. Bishop. an honorary fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographic Society who then was on a visit to Korea. noted that "in the case of grown-up men. the number of illiterate is less than in many Western countries where compulsory education is in force."

After the Protectorate Treaty. Japan placed Korea's education ministry under its control. Japan was reluctant to train Korean teachers; in 1908. one third of the schoolteachers in Korea were Japanese. Japan censored textbooks and banned publication of what might enhance patriotism among the Koreans.

In other words. Japan was preparing to colonize Korea. Now Jet us see how Japan hindered modernization of education in Korea. In the spiritual sphere. Japan started a program of distorting the history of Korea. For instance. Japanese scholars insisted that their ancesto_rs once ruled Korea and that both peoples originated from the same roots . Japanese soon became the official language of Korea.

Then Japanese authorities began reducing the schooling period at various levels on the pretext that they reflected the general academic standard in Korea ... and "the reality." One Japanese viceroy. claiming that intimidation was "the best medicine for Koreans ... ordered all teachers to wear military hats and swords in their classrooms. After the March I independence uprising in 1919. such harsh measures were slightly relaxed. But the Korean ardor for education was all but ignored.

In 1937. only 30 percent of school-age children were admitted to primary schools. The rate was even smaller among the middle school age children . Only one-seventh of them were allowed to attend middle schools. In a nutshell. the Japanese stubbornly maintained a policy to make Korea a nation of unlearned people.

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Portion of now-defunct Seoul Imperial University built under Japanese colonial rule.

¡Access to primary education easily expanded later as Japan had to mobilize an increasing ¡ number of Koreans for war with China and for the munitions industry. But then only 70 percent of the primary school-age children were attending schools at the time of the national liberation in I 94 5.

Many Koreans believed that modernization of their country could start only with the production of highly-educated talented people. When the nation was subjugated. the Koreans diverted the fund. which they had raised to clear the national debt. to the establishment of private institutes of higher learning. Such a movement triggered all-out interference by the Japanese who regarded it as a serious challenge and threat to their colonial rule.

Japan opened Kyongsong Cheguk Taehak (Seoul Imperial University) to nullify the Korean attempts at opening private institutes. But two-thirds of its students were Japanese. It was as late as I 941 that the imperial university added the departments of natural science and engineering. The school served in no way as the basis for Korea's development.

A few junior colleges specializing in humanities were allowed. It is proper to say that opportunities for higher education were fundamentally blocked in Korea. For instance. there was only one Korean professor at Seoul Imperial University until the time of the national liberation.

In the case of a fisheries school in Pusari. which opened in I 941. there was no Korean professor at all.

Korea spent nearly the first half of the 20th century suffering from Japanese imperialism.

It may be too severe to say that Korea under colonial rule had everything negative - politically. economically, culturally and socially. As F.A. McKenzie points out in The Tragedy of Korea. the country was like a patient with a terminal illness.

The loss of national sovereignty and the ensuing colonial rule forced the nation to waste away nearly all of the first half of this century. It was a completely different story in the second half.ÂŽ (This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation .)

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FACTS ABOUT EDUCATION PRESENT NO SHANGRI~LA Korea's "Examination Hell Mars Schooling" Moon Yong-lin

he history of the Korean people stretches back more than 5.000 years. and although the Korean peninsula has experienced numerous struggles and divisions over the centuries. the Korean people have always managed to reunite as a single. homogenous nation sharing a common language and culture combining the values of Confucianism. Buddhism and native religion.

Despite this homogeneity. however. life on the Korean peninsula was profoundly influenced

by Japanese colonial rule from 1910 until the end of World War II in 1945. Although Korean sovereignty as a unified nation was restored following the defeat of Japan. the Korean people were unable to savor the fruits of their newfound freedom because of the division of the peninsula at the 38th parallel and the occupation of the North by Soviet forces and the South by American forces. A natural result of this military occupation was the adoption in the North of a Soviet-style socialist constitution and in the South of a democratic constitution. With the formal establishment of separate governments in 1948. Korea was. in effect. divided and remains so today. the educational systems of North and South Korea are starkly different because of the profound influence of their Soviet and American occupiers. North Korea's Provisional Measures Governing School Education" announced in October I 94 5 focus on socialist and communist ideology and reveal how rapidly Soviet educational models were adopted by the Pyongyang regime. For example. anti-imperialist education and the cultivation of a better understanding of the Soviet Union were at that time and remain a major theme running throughout the Korean language and history courses taught in the north.

Similarly the educational system in South Korea began to take on the attributes of the American educational system soon after the American military government was established following the Second World War. The basic policy direction established by the Korean Committee on Education. an arm of the American occupying forces. and the National Committee on .Educational Planning clearly reflect the American influence in the form of the 6-3-3-4 single ladder school system generally implemented in the United States and in the proclamation of "the cultivation of a democratic society" as the primary goal of education.

We must understand. however. that while the educational systems established in North and South Korea seem. on the surface. to be almost identical to their respective models in the Soviet Union and the United States. they are in many respects nothing more than superficial adoptions of foreign systems. and although each system has been faithfully implemented over

T

Born in in Seoul in I 947. Moon Yong-lin received his undergraduate degree from Seoul National University's Department of Education and then went on to earn a Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota in I 985. Upon his return to Korea. Moon worked as a professor at Sejong University and as research director at the Korean Educational Development Institute (KED!) . He is presently an associate professor at Seoul National University. His publications include Moral Education and Effective Education.

30

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

the last 4 5-plus years. obviously Korean elements in the educational systems of both North and South Korea are easy to find. Thus while an understanding of the Soviet-style educational philosophy and the American-style educational ideal is important to a study of education in the North and South respectively. a grasp of two other elements. namely the vestiges of authoritarianism left behind after 35 years of harsh Japanese colonial rule and the influences of a centuries-old Confucian tradition that has bred a deep-seated reverence for education and the educated. is essential. Indeed. these two elements constitute the core of education in both Koreas.

Socialism provides the surface structure for education in North Korea but the internal structure is based on the traditional Confucian reverence for education as well as authoritarianism patterned after that of the Japanese colonial government. The South Korean educational system is. on the surface. structured around an American model of democratic education. but we find at its core a firm Confucian and authoritarian mentality just like that of North Korea.

This dual structure is what makes the educational systems of both North and South Korea unique. and an understanding of this dualism is essential to an understanding of Korean education in general. With the recent thawing of Cold War politics. the unification of Germany and the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and many former Eastern Bloc nations. we must give serious consideration to the ultimate integration of the educational systems of North and South Korea . I believe the best approach to this problem would be a combination of the strong points and the elimination of the disadvantages of each system.

Unfortunately I am unable to effectively cover both North and South Korean education in this article and so will turn now to a discussion of the South Korean educational system. keeping in mind our ultimate goal of preparing for the gradual integration of the educational systems of both Koreas. I will focus first on a statistical analysis of the South Korean educational system and then briefly discuss the curriculum. In closing I will look at movements toward the revision of the present system.

SCHOOL SYSTEM At present. the south Korean educational system is a 6-3-3-4 single ladder system founded on the belief that all students should be offered equal educational opportunities through matriculation and promotion within a unified system as opposed to a double ladder system in which students are steered into either a vocational or university track from an early age.

Korean children enter elementary school at age six and move on to a three-year middle school course after six years of compulsory primary education. They then can go on to a threeyear high school course and four years of university if they choose. Table I on the next page illustrates the current school system.

As this table indicates ( 1-1 I). some educational alternatives are offered for students who do not fit into the basic 6-3-3-4 system .

The present school system has changed little since its introduction by the American military government in I 94 5. but it is not without its problems. foremost of which is the short period of compulsory education -- only six years. Most advanced and semi-developed countries now provide at least ten years of government-financed compulsory education. At present the Korean government is financing compulsory middle school education in remote villages but the system has not been implemented nationwide.

A second problem plaguing Korean education is vertical rigidity within the system. It is almost impossible for a pupil to overcome the gap created if he or she does not enter school with children his or her own age or if the pupil flunks a grade. In the present system there is very

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

31

little flexibility allowing educators. parents and students to adjust to the individual needs of each student.

Another major problem is the difficulty for students to move horizontally within the system.

That is to say. while there is a wide variety of high schools. for example. the general curriculum. vocational training as well as the arts and physical education divisions. it is impossible for a student to transfer from one discipline to another. The justification for this phenomenon has been the perceived need to maintain the single ladder system. and while this makes sense through the middle school years. many critics argue high school education has for all intents and purposes already become a dual track system.

Table 1. The Current School System Elementary Education 2

7

3

8

9

Secondary Education

6

4

10

II

8

7 12

13

9 14

10 15

II 16

Higher Education 12

17

General (Academic) High School (3 years)

Elementary School

19

15 20

16 21

17 22

18 23

19 24

25

Dentistry & Medicine 4 Year College and University Graduate School

II Korea Corres Univ.

Vocational High School (3 years)

Elementary School (6 years)

J8

14

Teachers¡ College

Middle School (3 years)

Kindergarten (1&2 yearsj

13

Open College ,----10 ,..----'

~isc.S~ Nursing . Junior 1 College 8 1

I. 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Civil School Specialized School Higher Civil School Trade School Higher Trade School .

Specialized High School Correspondence High School

(Source: Education in Korea. M inistry of Education. 1988)

A fourth area of concern is the structural concentration on general education at the expense of vocational education. The entire educational system from the elementary years onward has come to focus on university entrance. and as a result. preparation for life as a productive member of society has been neglected in favor of a concentration on "instrumental subjects" such as English. mathematics and Korean language. the core subjects on university entrance examinations. An excessive interest in white-collar culture has been cultivated and as a result everyone feels they must go to a university.

None of these four problems can be solved easily. In fact. one could say these problems are the source of all the difficulties facing the Korean educational system today. Perhaps this

32

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

is why there has been such a ground swell of demand for the revision of the educational system since 198 7. Among these demands has been the Presidential Commission for Educational Reform's recommendation to President Roh Tae-woo (Please refer to the article by Prof. Honq in this issue. Ed.) that the present 6+3-4 system be changed to a kindergarten-5-3-4-4 system in which kindergarten would be made a compulsory course to be followed by five years of elementary school. Under this revised system. the age for primary school matriculation would be lowered to five. and three years of tuition-free middle school would be made mandatory.

This recommendation is presently under review at the Ministry of Education (MOE) which controls its fate.

When considering such reforms. we should keep the North Korean educational system in mind as our two educational systems must be merged if we hope to make a success of national unification. At present. the North Koreans are operating a dual ladder K-4-6-4 system in which the first II years are tuition-free and compulsory.

ADMINISTRATION & FINANCING The administration of education in South Korea can be divided into two basic categories: the central educational administrative body and many local administrative bodies. The central educational administrative body is. of course. the MOE headed by the Minister of Education who as a member of the cabinet represents the president and is responsible for all educational policy and administration in South Korea.

The local administrative bodies include the local autonomous Boards of Education and the Offices of Education which are under the control of the local boards. Theoretically the duties and responsibilities of the local Boards and Offices are to be defined by local governments. but in reality. the MOE has exerted complete control over educational policy in the past. This may change. however. with the implementation of autonomous local government in 1991. At the present time. the administration of post-secondary education including universities and junior colleges is handled directly by the MOE. while high school education is under the direction of the local Board of Education. and elementary and middle school education is under the direction of the local Office of Education. Responsibility for each individual school rests. of course. in the hands of its respective principal.

Table 2. The Educational Administration System MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

BOARD OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF EDUCATION

J

IMinister of Education I

I

I

Vice Minister I I ~ !colleges & Universities!

Vl-cJ

$:u ~~a .......... <

(]) 0

-¡

lll'O:l (f)

Q.@

;:::;: U"J

§<i"

I Superintendent I I Vice Superintendent I I

High Schools

I

Head Officer Middle/Elementary Schools

This administrative system is the subject of considerable criticism. both theoretical and practical. relating to teachers. The theoretical criticism focuses on the fact that the laws and regulations pertaining to education in Korea are modeled after those of Japan and have therefore prevented Koreans from ridding themselves of the authoritarian remnants of Japanese colonial education. The second area of criticism focuses on Korean teachers' repeated assertions

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 199 1

33

of their right to organize a labor union. After nearly 45 years of campaigning, the National Educators' Labor Union was formed on May 28. 1989 in the midst of a wave of democratization sentiment. The Korean government has refused, however. to recognize the union. One of the goals of the union has been to reform the authoritarian administrative system and provide expanded teacher participation in the decision-making process.

This year could mark the beginning of some important changes in the administration of Korean educational policy because of the scheduled introduction of the autonomous local administration system in which educational administration will fall under the jurisdiction of local governments.

This downward shift in the administration of educational policy is a matter of concern for some, however, because of the local governments' lack of experience in this area. Local educational administrators' shortcomings in terms of both expertise and skills were made all too clear when they failed to resolve the disputes which split teachers. students. administrators and parents during the recent crisis involving the teachers' union. In fact the local control over education is the single most important educational issue facing South Koreans today.

Education accounts for a hefty portion of South Korea's annual budget. Figures for 1990 reveal that education accounted for 3.65 percent of the nation's gross national product and 22.3 percent (5.6 trillion won or roughly $US7.7 billion) of the government's annual budget.* The following table shows the MOE's share of the total government budget in 1987 as well as a breakdown of how the MOE budget was used.

Table 3. Government Budget vs.

MOE Budget FY 1987

The Budget of MO

by Use. FY 1987

(Source: Education in Korea. Ministry of Education. 1988 )

The MOE share of the total budget (20.1 percent) ranked second only to expenditures on national defense (31.6 percent) and surpassed the total allocated to economic development (16.7 percent) in 1987. A close look at the breakdown of the MOE budget reveals, however. *Kong Eun-bae, Chon Se-yong. Financing Levels for Korean Education, (Seoul : Korean Educational Development.

Institute, 1990). p. 75.

34

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

that 67.1 percent of all MOE funds went to personnel expenses and 16.6 percent went to management expenses. while only 16.3 percent found its way to facility expenses. Over the years the bulk of MOE funds have gone to operating expenses.

This table suggests that the share of the total national budget allocated to education is high. but in fact a comparison with other countries reveals that Korea's public expenditures on education at a total of 2.9 percent of GNP is relatively low compared to Japan at 5.1 percent ( 1985).

Great Britain at 5.2 percent (1984). West Germany at 4.6 percent (1985). Singapore at 4.4 percent (1982) and Italy at 4.0 percent (1986).

Table 4 below reveals just how South Korea's public investment in education pales compared to that of other nations. However. we must bear in mind that a high level of private (parental) investment is a unique feature of education in South Korea. Figures for I 990 indicate parental and student outlays totaled 9.4 trillion won. or 1.7 times more than the 5.6 trillion won in government expenditures on education during the same year.

Schools in South Korea are underfunded but parents contribute a great deal in private expenses to their children's education. For example. in metropolitan areas. parents may spend from 200.000 to 300.000 won ($US276 to $US414) monthly on outside tutoring for their children. Clearly the Korean people must find a rational and effective way to channel these private funds back into public education.

Table 4. Comparison of Educational Expenditures per Student (unit USS)

LEVEL

KOREA (1987)

Primary Secondary (Middle) (High) Higher

479 448 601 1.484

ROC (1983)

UK (1983)

30 1 545

JAPAN (1983)

1.140 1.794

1.555

1.6 18 1.814 2.361 2,1 10

5.542

USA (1985)

W.GERMANY (1983)

3.173 3. 173

1.689 2.377

6.255

2.624

(Source: Education Indicators in Korea. Korean Educational Development Institute (KED!). 1989)

SCHOOLS & STUDENTS Education in south Korea can be divided into two basic categories: public education and private education. The next table shows the breakdown by number of schools at each level and the percentage of private and public facilities. The percentage of private institutions increases notably in the secondary and post-secondary years.

Table 5. Number of Schools School Kindergarten Elementary Middle High Junior Coli.

University

National/ Public

4.610 6.319 1.743 829 16 23

(56%) (98.8%) (71 %) (49.6%) (13.7%) (22 %)

Private

3.636 77 707 843 101 81

(44 %) (1.2%) (2 9%) (50.4%) (86.3%) (78%)

Total

8.246 6.396 2.450 1.672 117 104

(100%) (I 00%) (1 00%) (100%) (100%) (100%)

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 199 1

35

High schools are classified into general high schools. vocational high schools and specialized high schools such as arts and physical education schools.

The term "general high schools" refers to those high schools attended by students who hope to attend university. Vocational high schools are intended for students planning to find jobs in the work force immediately after graduation. However. since the number of students who wish to attend general high school exceeds the enrollment capacity, a large number of students are forced to attend vocational schools which. generally speaking. are less popular than general high schools. In a general high school 49.9 percent of each graduating class will attend university as compared to only 9.5 percent in a vocational school. As a result students in vocational schools tend to be less motivated.

Table 6. Breakdown of High Schools (1984)

Table 7. School Enrollment

School

Number (%)

School

Students

%

General High Schools Vocational H.S. - Agricultural - Technical - Commercial -Fishery-Marine - Arts - Comprehensive - Other Vocational

1.084 (64.8 %) 588 (35 .2%) 59 104 204 9

Elementary Middle High Junior Coli/ University

4.894.000 2.371.000 2.326.000 1.31 1.000

45.0 2 1. 7 21.3 12.0

Total

10.902.000

100.0

Total

1.672 (1 00%)

194 18

(Source: Education Indicators in Korea. KED!.

1989)

In South Korea. university entrance is the dream of every parent and student and as a result of the intense competition. our society is plagued by inconsistencies and irregularities related to the university entrance process. The Ministry of Education is working to resolve problems such as excessive private expenditures on tutoring and the like. but it has yet to announce any comprehensive program.

In recent years government officials have recognized the unreasonable levels of competition among general high school students and so there is some policy movement toward a readjustment of the general high school-vocational high school ratio from 64.8-35.2 percent to a 50-50 ratio. The recent shortage in skilled technicians plaguing the South Korean economy could mean that we will actually see a signific~nt readjustment of the general high schoolvocational school ratio in an effort to address the serious social and economic imbalances threatening our society today.

In 1989. students made up approximately 27 percent of the total 42 million population of South Korea. Table 7 above breaks down the student population by enrollment.

The entrance rate for students entering elementary school for the first time or advancing to a new educational level is high in the early years and generally decreases as a student moves up the educational ladder. As Table 8 on the following page shows. the entrance rate for girls is somewhat lower than that for boys.

The school enrollment ratio table on the facing page shows the percentage of children of a certain age group attending school.

36

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 199 1

Table 8. Entrance Rates (( %) = girls)

Year

M iddle School 48.8 63.8 76.9 96.8 99.1 99 .5

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1989

(40.8) (53.4) (69.0) (95.0) (98.7) (99.3)

Higher Educ.

High School 8 1.1 70.9 75.6 84.8 88.8 90.1

(71.6) (70.3) (70.1) (80.1) (84.9) (85.2)

25.9 34.5 33.1 47. 1 59.1 (40.6) 50.2 (40.7)

I st grade students of higher school Note: I ) Entrance rate= - - " - - - - - - - " - - - Graduates 2) Higher education includes college. university. junior colleges. teachers¡ colleges and miscellaneous schools.

[Source: Education Indicators in Korea. KED!. 1989 )

Table 9. School Enrollment Ratio (( %) =girls)

Year

Kindergarten

1966 1970 1975 1980 1985 1989

1. 1 ( 1.0)

1.3 ( 1. 2) 1. 7 4.1 18.9 30. 1

(1. 6) (3 .9) (18.5) (29.9)

Elementary S. 96.8 100.7 107.8 102.9 99.9 101.5

(95.5) (100.2) (10 5.3) (103.7) (100.1) (100.9)

MiddleS. 42. 1 51.2 72.0 95.0 I 00. 1 98.4

(32 .6) (40.6) (63.1) (92.5) (99.6) (100.5)

HighS. 26.8 28.1 4 1.0 63.5 79.5 86.0

(18.7) (21 .6) (32.5 ) (56.2) (75.5) (80.2)

Higher Educ.

8.8 9.5 16.0 35.6 37 .2

(4.5) (5 .4) (8.1) (21.6) (23.4)

[Source: Education Indicators in Korea. KED!. 1989)

The following table shows Korea's enrollment rates are on par with or exceed those of many advanced nations.

Table l 0. School Enrollment Ratio of Major Countries [%)

Country

Secondary Educ.

Higher Educ.

KOREA JAPAN USA UK FRANCE

9 1.4 96.0 100.0 85.0 95.0

37.2 28.8 59.3 22.4 30.2

[Source: Educational Indicators in Korea. KED !. 1989)

South Korean graduation rate statistics for 1989 show 98.5 percent of all elementary pupils.

96.7 percent of all middle school students and 90.7 of all high school students graduated from their respective schools. The drop-out rate varied from I .5 to I 0 percent and increased in the upper levels. The employment rate for high school graduates as well as graduates from junior colleges was 52 percent while it was only 49.7 for university graduates. These employment rates vary extremely from year to year but generally speaking the rates for high school and junior college graduates appear to be rising steadily.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

37

Table 11. Employment Rates for Graduates High School Year 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1989

Junior College

College & University

Employed

Employ. Rate

Employed

Employ. Rate

Employed

Employ. Rate

28.869 39.963 76.805 128.103 170.404 239.200

36.8 37.7 39.3 37 .7 41.7 52.0

3.452 9.032 7.021 20.190 30.748 41.316

53.4 82.2 37.4 40.8 44 .5 52.0

13.092 13.743 19.635 28.3 49 48.552 76.5 94

36.5 61.3 62.5 65 .0 45.7 49.7

(Source: Educational Indicators in Korea. KED!. I989)

Class sizes in South Korea are excessively large with I 0-30 more students than those of other nations and North Korea. In 1989. the average class size for elementary school was 42.1. in middle school 52.3 and 54.7 in high school. The student-teacher ratio table below shows how overcrowded South Korean classrooms are.

Table 12. Student-Teacher Ratios in Majs>r Foreign Countries Country KOREA HONG KONG JAPAN FRANCE W. GERMANY CANADA

Elem . Ed.

Sec. Ed.

Higher Ed.

Year

36.4 27 .3 23.3 17.2 17 .2 7.5

30.4 25.1 17 .8 17.0 17.0 17.8

34.7 13.0 9.7 20.0 8.2 21.8

1988 1984 1986 1980 1985 1986

(Source: Education Indicators in Korea. KED!. I989)

South Korean universities are not equipped to handle the thousands of students who apply and so each year the competition for university entrance intensifies. Table I 3 demonstrates the cutthroat competition which is made all the more intense by the growing number of test repeaters who take the entrance examination two or more times. The Ministry of Equcation has tried to reduce the number of repeaters who are the source of a number of social and economic problems for both families and society as a whole but as this table indicates. little has been achieved in this area.

Although a significant increase in the number of students admitted to universities has occurred since 1974. as of 1990 only 38.8 percent of all applicants were accepted to a university.

The murderous competition at general high schools that results is causing a number of serious social problems not the least of which are the trend toward intensive extracurricular tutoring and torturous study schedules allowing for only three hours of sleep a night. A popular slogan among high school students these days is: "You'll pass with three hours of sleep but you' ll fail with four. " Clearly today's high school students are subject to a great deal of unhealthy stress that undoubtedly impairs their physical and psychological development. Most Koreans would agree this intense competition is the most serious problem distorting high school education today.

38

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 199 I

Table 13. Number of Applicants for Higher Education and Repeater Year

1974 1976 1978 1980 198 1 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990

Total Graduates

234.876 310.11 9 400.42 1 467.388 496.836 545.598 579.123 614,062 642.354 667.779 683.420 685.909 700.571 767.571

Openings (B)

Seating Capacity (8/A)

56.580 60.5 55 76.410 205.835 305. 190 323.678 327.368 328.936 314.5 17 3 11.044 271.745 296.820 310.220 334 .855

29.0 23.8 23.8 41.0 53.0 54.7 48.6 47.8 43.3 43.3 37. 1 38.8 38.6 38.8

Applicants for Higher Education Applicants

Repeaters

Total (A)

130.734 177.466 202.649 3 17.606 357.809 389 .1 95 426.568 439.551 459.323 4 71.628 502.1 15 509.265 528.960 605.258

64. 182 76.2 11 117.184 183.909 217.321 202.532 247.630 248,100 266.538 241.241 230.8 16 2 56.339 274, 180 283.890

194,916 253.677 3 19.833 501.515 575.130 591.727 674.198 687.651 725.861 717.869 732.931 765.604 803. 140 889. 148

(Source: Education Indicators in Korea. KEDI. 1989)

TEACHERS The table below shows the distribution of teachers by school and gender. As the table indicates. women are relatively well represented in the teaching profession when compared with other sectors of South Korean Society.

Table 14. Number of Teachers (1989)

~ Teachers %Female

Elem .

Middle

High

Junior Coil/

School

School

School

University

134.898 48 .7

81.699 43 .7

87.277 21.9

38.674 16.7

Total

342.548

-

The average teacher is 36.5-38 years old and has 12- 18.5 years of teaching experience. The retirement rate varies from I .4 percent for elementary school teachers. 2.5 percent for middle school teachers. 3.2 percent for high school teachers to 6.7 percent for university-level teachers.

Generally speaking the retirement rate for South Korean educators has declined in recent years.

During the 1970s. retirement for middle school teachers was around 15 percent. but the rate has declined considerably since the I 980s. I do not believe. however. that this reflects greater job satisfaction; rather it is a function of the gradual decrease in job alternatives caused by the persistent economic stagnation that has plagued South Korea in recent years.

A recent poll indicates Korea's brightest students shun a career in education for the following reasons. First. they perceive few opportunities for promotion or personal development in the profession (35 percent). Second. they believe the pay is too low (27.7 percent). and finally they believe the social status of teachers is too low (26. 8 percent) . These three problems are in fact the major issues troubling teachers at the primary and secondary levels today and the greatest sources of job dissatisfaction.

VoL 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

39

The starting salary for a young teacher is much lower than that of a novice office worker employed in a private business although it is slightly better than that of other government officials of similar standing. Teachers· pay increases at a much slower rate than their counterparts in private business and at a slightly slower rate than other government officials.

On the whole. we have to admit that the teaching profession is not very attractive. although it is considered as a good career for women. For this reason. the percentage of female teachers at the primary and secondary levels is increasing gradually.

At present two major teachers· organizations are operating in South Korea. although one is illegal and has not been recognized by the government. The only legal teachers· organization is the Korean Federation of Teachers· Associations (KFT A) to which 340.000. or 68 percent of all teachers. belong at present. In I 98 7. 8 I percent of all teachers belonged to the KFTA. The National Educators· Labor Union comprised of some I 5.300 members was established on May 28. I 989. The union is not recognized as a legitimate organization by the government. and the authorities have fired I. 560 teachers because of their membership in the illegal union.

It is believed that the union may be receiving financial support from as many as 300.000 teachers who have not registered as official members out of fear of government recrimination.

While the basic goal of both these teachers' organizations is protecting the rights of teachers. the fundamental difference between the KFTA and the National Educators· Labor Union is their definition of what it means. to be a teacher. Are teachers workers as the labor union argues or specialized professionals as the KFTA defines them? The National Educators' Labor Union seeks to ensure the rights of teachers in the way a labor union asserts the rights of laborers. while the KFTA. on the other hand. firmly believes its role is as a consultative body.

These mutually contradictory points of views are certain to remain a hot issue for some time to come. The friction between these two organizations as well as the conflict between the teachers' union and the Ministry of Education are causing serious fissures among teachers on the job and have resulted in a deterioration of the educational environment on campuses around the country. In addition. the 1.000-plus teachers who were fired after joining the teachers· union remain a heavy burden for both the government and the South Korean people.

CURRICULUM All laws and ordinances related to school curricula are set by law in south Korea. and as a result the same curricula. textbooks and teachers' manuals are used throughout the country.

This national curriculum has been revised five times since its initial establishment in 194 5. the most recent revision occurring in 1987. As a rule. the Ministry of Education has revised the national curriculum every six or seven years and is in the midst of preparing the revisions for I 991.

The goal of all levels of the South Korean educational system is the promotion of the ideal of "benefit for all mankind." a concept embodied in the founding myth of the Korean people.

In order to realize this goal. South Korean educators seek to cultivate citizens who are healthy, independent. creative and ethical.

All schools in the South Korean educational system operate on a two semester system. The new academic year and first semester begin in early March. The first semester ends in late August. and the second semester begins in early September and ends in late February the following year. Each semester spans approximately 17 weeks and a full school year 34 weeks.

The high school and university entrance examinations are held in November or December and graduation ceremonies are usually held in December or the following january or February. All these important events are held during the coldest time of the year giving rise to the

40

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

suggestion that the beginning of the new academic year be moved to September as is the case in North Korea where graduation ceremonies. entrance examinations and entrance ceremonies are held in late spring or during the summer when the weather is warm.

The table below details the curriculum for elementary school students. Korean language (204-238 hours per academic year) accounts for the largest block of class time followed by arithmetic (I 36- I 70 hours) and then science. social studies and physical education .

Table 15. Elementary School Curriculum [unit: teaching hours) Classification

1st year

2nd year

Moral Education Korean Language

374

374

Social Studies

3rd year

4th year

5th year

6th year

68

68

68

68

238

204

204

204

102

102

136

136

Arithmetic

136

136

136

170

170

Science

68

102

136

136

136

102

102

1.02

102

68

68

68

68

68

68

68

68

-

68

68

68

Vl

tJ QJ 15' :::l (/)

Physical Education Music

204

238

-

-

Sub Total

782

816

884

952

1.020

1.020

Extracurricular Activities

-

-

34+

68+

68+

68+

782

816

918+

1,020+

1.088+

1.088

Fine Arts Crafts

Grand Total

• The hours shown on this table represent minimum school hours allotment for 34 weeks per year.

• One teaching hour in this table represent 40 mintues.

[Source: Education in Korea, Ministry of Education. 1988)

The textbooks covering the nine subjects offered in elementary school are divided into two volumes. one for each semester. These government designated textbooks are published by the government and distributed free of charge to students around the country. Teachers prepare their lessons on the basis of the teachers· guides which accompany the children's textbooks.

Table I 6 on the next page shows the curriculum followed by middle school students in South Korea. This table shows middle school students must study I 2 required courses and then choose one or two elective subjects and extracurricular activities. Korean language. English. mathematics and science account for greatest share of class time with approximately I 36- I 70 hours each academic year. while social studies. physical education and vocational skills come in second with I 02 hours each. Of special note are classical Chinese and moral education classes. two courses not found in other societies. South Korea's educational system is also unique for its lack of religious courses.

In middle schooL two types of textbooks are used: government-authorized textbooks like those used in elementary school and government-approved textbooks. Government-designated textbooks used for Korean language. moral education. social studies and history are published and distributed by the state. Government-approved textbooks are published by private publishing firms and then approved by the government for use in the ·schools.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

41

Table 16. Middle School Curriculum (unit: teaching hours)

Classification Moral Education Korean Language

1st year (7 grade)

2nd year (8 grade)

68 (2) 136 (4)

Korea History

Required Subjects

68 (2)

170 (S)

170 (S)

68 (2)

68 (2) 68-102 (2-3 )

102 (3)

68 - 102 (2 -3)

Mathematics

136 (-4)

I 02- 136 (3-4)

I 36 - 170 (4-5)

Science

136 (4)

102 -1 36 (3-4)

136-170 (4-5)

Physical Education

102 (3)

102 (3)

102 (3)

Music

68 (2)

68 (2)

34-68 (1-2)

Fine Arts

68 (2)

68 (2)

34-68 (1-2 )

34 (I)

34 - 68 (1-2)

34-68 (1 -2 )

English

136 (4)

102 - 170 (3-5 )

102 -1 70 (3-5 )

Vocational Skills (Boys) Home Economics (Girls)

102 (3)

136 - 204 (4-6)

-

-

-

Se 1-2 170-238 (5-7)

Agriculture. Technical.

Commerce. Fisheries.

House Keeping Elective

Extracurricular Activities Total • • • • •

68 (2)

Social Studies

Classical Chinese

Elective Sub jects

3rd year (9 grad)

0-34 (0-1)

0-34 (0- 1)

0-34 (0- 1)

68+ (2+ )

68+ (2+ )

68+ (2+)

1.156 -1.1 90 (34-35 )

I ;I 56 - 1.244 (34-36)

1.1 56-1.224 (34-36)

The hours shown on this table represent minimum school hours alloted for 34 weeks per year.

Figures in the parentheses are hours taught per week.

One teaching hour in this table represents 4 5 minutes.

Elective is principal's optional subjects.

Se: Select.

(Source: Education in Korea. Ministry of Education. 19881

The curriculum for high school student is divided into unit hours. The following t<;lble on page 4 3 shows the basic curriculum for a general high school. The curriculum for a vocational high school can vary somewhat.

As this table indicates. a general high school student must pass 26 different subjects as well as participate in 12 units of extracurricular activities. Korean language. English and mathematics make up 37 percent of the general high school curriculum. The sciences and social studies are second in importance. Since Korean language. English and mathematics make up approximately 60 percent of the university entrance examination. all students hoping to enter university focus on these subjects. In addition. many students receive private tutoring in these subjects to augment the regular curriculum. Supplementary classes in Korean language. English and mathematics extending untii iO p.m. are offered at school after the regular course work is finished.

Generally, third-year high school students leave for school at 6 a.m. and do not return home until after their supplementary sessions at I 0 p.m .. making for a grueling 16 hour day.

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 199 1

Table l 7. General (Academic) High School Curriculum (unit: teach ing hours)

Subjects

Moral Education Korean Language (1. 11) Korean History Social Studies Geography (1. 11) World History

Required Subject Units for lOth Grade 6 14-1 6 6 4- 6

Students select one of three majors Humanities Major lith - 12th Grades

14- 18

4

Science Ma jor I I th- 12th Grades

Vocational Ma jor II th- 12th Grades

8- 10

3-8

-

2- 6 Se. I

2

2

8-14

6-8

10-1 8

4- 18

Biology (1. 11) Earth Science (1. II) Chemistry (1. 11) Physics (1. 11)

Each 4-6

-

Each 4

4-12 Se. 1-2

Physical Education

6- 8

8-10

4-8

Mathematics

Military Training Music or Fine Arts Classical Chinese (1. II) English (1. II)

8- 10

-

12

-

4- 6 Se. I

4- 6 Se. I

2- 6 Se. I

2- 6 Se. I

-

8- 14

4-6

4- 6

14-1 6

14-16

6-1 6

6- 8

-

-

Chinese. French. German Japanese. Spanish

-

10-1 2 Se. I

10-12 Se. I

6- 10 Se. I

Home Economics (Girls) Industrial Arts (Boys)

-

8-10 Se. I

8-10 Se. I

10-38 Se. I

Agriculture. Commerce Technical. Fisheries

-

8-1 0 Se. I

8-10 Se. I

Elective

-

0-8

0- 8

0-8

88-102

90-11 6

90-11 6

52 -1 06

Sub Total Extracurricular Activities Grand Total

-

12 204-2 16

• • • •

(I) means required subjects.

(II) means the elective subjects by course and program.

I unit means a period of 50 minutes per week during one term ( 17 weeks). One week equals 51f2 days.

Individ ual high schools. by choice. may increase I Oth grade required subject areas from 88 to I 02 uni ts.

This allows. for example. a Mathematics. Science or Language emphasis.

Same approach is allowed for I I th and 12th grades.

• Se: Select.

(Source: Education in Korea. Ministry of Education. 1988)

There is a growing demand for a revision of the present university entrance examination system which has become a torturous ritual for so many of South Korea's young people. The Ministry of Education has promised to implement an improved system beginning in the 1994 academic year.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 199 1

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THE FUTURE In recent years. there have been persistent calls for reforms in the present educational system because of the South Korean people's general lack of satisfaction.

In 1985 the Presidential Commission for Education Reform. a consultative body reporting directly to the president. was formed to devise a comprehensive set of reform measures. In 1989. following the inauguration of a new president. the Education Policy Advisory Committee was established for the same reason. Both bodies are still in the process of formulating new educational policies. The problem lies in putting these policies into effect. Any major reforms of the educational system would require massive funding and great determination on the part of the government.

While the South Korean people are not satisfied with their educational system. it is clear that both the people and the government are committed to improving it. I believe the educational system can improve. perhaps not as quickly or much as we would like. as soon as the reform schedule is announced and the president pronounces his firm resolve to bring about changes. And we must never forget that any blueprint for a new educational system must take the North Korean situation into account in order to form the framework for unification of the two Koreas in the future . @

(The original text of this article was written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use is a translation.)

High school students taking a college entrance exam.

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

b~ KOREANA.

This

"EXAMINATION HELL" IN KOREA REVISITED An Eternal Malady In Education?

Kwak Byong~sun

s the traditional ascriptive social structure lost its legacy since the late 19th century through a series of drastic social changes. education has become one of the most powerful sources of mobility for individuals. It was also the primary instrument for training and supplying qualified manpower for nation building. Along with a Confucian tradition that highly revered scholarship. Korean people were naturally motivated to seek as much education as possible.

Higher education. naturally. is the ultimate target for educationally motivated people. Recent statistics show that over 93 percent of Korean parents expect their children to enter colleges or universities. 11 Every year. more than 800.000 applicants. a size larger than the total number of new high school graduates. take college entrance examinations. against only 300.000 available admission seats in colleges and universities21.

These figures indicate the extent of the people's excessive aspiration for higher education and for the inevitably competitive nature of the admission race to colleges or universities. In reality. three-fourths of all high school students participate in preparatory programs for col-

A

lege entrance examinations. In the end. only one-third of them succeed. The rest must leave school with great dismay.

A huge number of graduates (about 300.000) who have failed in college entrance examinations continue preparatory work for the examinations in the following year. They are called "(exam) repeaters:¡ representing a large number of adolescents with a doubtful future. Each year. the number of repeaters has been increasing.

High school students who wish. to go to colleges or universities have to compete in the examination race not only against their peer group but also against the repeaters. Accordingly, the competition becomes stiffer each year. putting too much stress upon the students.

Students are highly pressured and driven by the expectations of their parents and teachers.

The learning process overly emphasizes cramming because of multiple-choice questions on entrance examinations.

Of all the students in the world. Koreans perhaps spend the largest number of hours studying. There is a saying. "4 pass. 5 fail." which means that if one sleeps only for four hours a day he/she may pass the entrance examinations. but those who sleep for five hours fail. Education dominated by the preparation for college entrance examinations also exhausts students

Born in 1942. Kwak Byong-sun. graduated from the Department of Economics at Seoul National University. and received his Ph. D. in economics from Marquette University in the U.S. in 1980. He served as Chairman of the Korean Society for Curriculum Studies. He is currently a fellow and director of the Office of Planning and Coordination. Korean Educational Development Institute. His major publications include: Curriculum (1983) and Curriculum in Korea (1985) .

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 1991

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in body and mind. In this respect. Korean education. for some critics. has long been an "entrance examination hell."

Access policy and admission to colleges and universities has become a critical issue since the establishment of the Korean educational system. As far as entrance examinations for higher education are concerned. one of most central issues has been the criteria and procedures for determining who should enter higher education. Along with this central issue. several other far-reaching issues are at stake.

Should government or university have control over screening? How can each higher institution have equal opportunity to select equally qualified applicants among the pool of high school graduates? What access policy and admissions criteria should be arranged to ensure the normalization of the schooling process up to the high school level. and thereby assure admission to higher education for persons having not only appropriate academic talent but also those with non-cognitive quality needed in the professional world?

When more than 90 percent of the age cohort wishes to enter higher education and only 40 percent of them can be atcepted. and thus overheated competition for college entrance is inevitable. what criteria and examinations can ensure the quality education in schooling. as well as a reliable selection of high school graduates? What impact does multiple-choice type and quantitative type of entrance examinations. which were the primary screening tool in the past decades. have on the overall quality of education? Is it feasible and desirable to offer subjective questions in entrance examinations in order to secure quality ¡education?

Major educational policies in Korea have evolved around the issues mentioned above. Since the liberation of the country in I 94 5. there have been nine changes in the policy of the college entrance examination system. particularly concerning the kind of examinations and screening processes to be used. During the last decade. three changes have taken place and another big change is also planned starting from the academic year of 1994. ¡ This implies that the Korean education system on the whole does not establish a stable selection system for higher education. Some people welcome a new alternative but some oppose it. Some people have called for a substantial reform of entrance examinations in critically insisting that the current system abuses objective tests so that schooling is only dominated by rote learning. Others advocate the maintenance of the current system and argue that there is no alternative to quantitative and objective type tests in dealing with several hundred-thousand applicants.

In this context. this paper describes the current entrance examination system in its changing prospects and analyzes some problems in relation to its impact on education and society.

THE SYSTEM Our current entrance examination system for higher education is based on the so called "7.30 Education Reform" of 1980. which brought a new screening method based on a new formula that combines college entrance achievement tests scores and high school records.31 The new reform was introduced in order to ease problems derived from a former entrance examination system exercised in the 1970s.

The entrance system of the 1970s required students to take two types of examinations: one was a College Entrance Preliminary Qualification Test (CEPOT). administered by the Ministry of Education (MOE). and the other one the Final Selection Test (FST). administered by individual colleges. The FST was given to those applicants who first passed the CEPOT and who submitted applications to the colleges or universities which they wished to enter.

In the late 1970s. some serious problems were perceived in the existing dual entrance ex-

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

amination system. First the CEPOT did not play a screening role as expected with the expansion of the ratio of students who passed the test. The CEPOT was designed to select qualified applicants to the tune of 150 percent of the annual enrollment capacity. In theory, it seemed to be rational in that qualified high school graduates would be chosen as a pool of applicants which might give an impact to high schools toward quality education.

Most selective colleges and universities welcomed that policy. But some institutions opposed it for fear that they would not have enough applicants to fill the quota. For some institutions this fear came true. The government later expanded the ratio of CEPOT-passing applicants to 200 percent of the original enrollment capacity. The rule applied also to two-year junior colleges. This expansion resulted in over 80 percent of applicants for CEPOT passing the examinations. Thus the original intention for quality control had been lost.

The subject areas included in FST were reduced from several broad subjects to a few core areas. thus causing high school education to focus on narrow subject areas. The rational for FST was based on the claims that each higher education institution should have autonomy to some extent in selecting their own entrant appropriate to the unique standard and characteristics of each institution.

Each college and university was recommended to decide on the nurnber of subjects. including core and selective subject areas. to be included in the text by department.. However. the trend had moved in a reverse direction. Most of the institutions tended to limit the number of subject areas (for FST) to mainly three areas: Korean language. mathematics. and English.

As a result the goal of general education for the development of the "whole person" became damaged by such unbalanced emphasis on limited subjects. That is. other subjects excluded from the required list for FST were treated as peripheral courses even though they were included as a core part of the curriculum.

Small wonder. A new movement got going to abolish FST. The reason for this was twofold.

One is based on the viewpoint that the CEPOT and FST were actually identical. This argument was supported by some evaluation experts who proved that students having high scores on CEPOT had also high scores consistently on FST. The other reason was that the dual examination system gave too much physical and psychological strain to students in preparing for the examinations.

REFORM With growing concerns over the problems about the existing entrance examination system. the government backed up by a new military power group. proposed a radical reform in 1980.

This was the so-called "7.30 Education Reform.'' 4l which attempted to depart from the old system drastically in four ways.

First it was designed to transfer the control over selection processes from higher education institutions to the government. Second. the reform was intended to replace the College Entrance Preliminary Qualification Test (CEPOT) with the College Entrance Achievement Test(CEAT).

The nature of CEAT was basically the same as the CEPOT in that it was a subjects-specific multiple choice test. The number of CEAT subjects were 16-1 7.

Third. a High School Records (HSR) System was mandate for application to colleges or universities. Colleges and universities had to reflect HSR. at least 30 percent of the total score. in screening their entrants. Since 1979. public colleges and universities began to ask applicants for their high school records. In the reform. all colleges and universities were required to take into account the HSR as screening data. Furthermore. the government recommended that higher education institutions increase the proportion of HSR gradually every year.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 1991

47

Fourth. colleges and universities were allowed to select an additional 30 percent of candidates over the graduation quota. This meant that if a college or university selected 30 percent in excess of their assigned quota. an equal proportion of students had to be dropped before their graduation. This policy was called "Admission over Quota. Graduation by Quota" policy.

This new reform was implemented from I 982. Applicants for admission to colleges or universities first took CEA T. The CEAT was administered by the Ministry of Education for one day in November. The results of CEAT in 16-1 7 subjects were given to each applicant as a total score.

For the screening. each applicant applied to a college or university with a CEAT score and HSR. Applicants had two chances to apply: One to the college or university which had the first round selection policy and the other one which had the second round selection policy in case they failed in the first round . The second round selection was offered a month after the first one.

PROBLEMS The new entrance examination system was promptly confronted with serious problems. Many applicants. except those who were confident of getting high scores. delayed submission of their application forms until the last minute before the deadline so that they might find out how many other applicants applied to which departments. Thus. without exception. the admission offices of all universities and colleges were in chaos due to the great number of crowded applicants at the closing time of application. This problem was caused by the "test-first application-next" policy.

Another problem was that the possibility of admission was the primary consideration. regardless of the applicant's aptitude or interest. Generally, the higher total score one got in CEAT and HSR. the more likely one tended to apply to so called first-class colleges or popular departments like medical science. law. electronic engineering, and so on. Undesirable hierarchy among departments as well as among institutions was established according to the level of cutoff scores for admission.

The "admission over quota and graduation by quota" policy also led to a crisis at universities. Universities which to.ok entrants over their quota had to eliminate the excess number of students in a span of four years to meet the graduation quota.

This gave a great psychological strain to students and an administrative burden to universities as well. It was often pointed out that the campus turmoil caused by violent student demonstrations was fanned by some students who were convinced that they would be dropped because of their low grades.

In relation to CEAT. two problems were raised. First it was argued that 16-1 7 CEAT subjects were too many. Students were overly stressed by an excessive learning load. Second. it had been disputed that the multiple choice questions exclusively used for CEAT would only emphasize rote memory at the expense of valuable educational objectives such as independent thinking. inquiry skills. and. among other attributes. creation of a well-rounded personality.

In view of these problems. several measures have been taken since the mid 1980s. First of all. the "test-first application-next" policy was replaced by "application-first test-next" in 1986. Second. the 16-17 CEAT subjects were reduced to nine in 1987. Third. the "admission over quota. graduation by quota" policy was abolished in 1988. That policy eventually resulted in the increase of students because the government approved those excess entrants as a part of the quota for each college and university. Fourth. a non subject-based essay test was introduced in 1986 in order to remedy the deficit of multiple choice test.

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But this new essay test was withdrawn after two years. Instead. subjective-type questions were attached to the existing CEAT. The subjective questions have been gradually increased up to 30 percent of the total scores in CEAT in recent years.

FOR 1994: In the continuing controversies over the college entrance examination system. an effort toward a more comprehensive reform was launched by the Presidential Council for Educational Reform (PCER). which was operated during the period I 985-7. The PCER proposed a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) instead of the existing CEA T. 5l The PCER proposal was taken and examined by the Korean Association for Higher Education (KAHE) .

The KAHE submitted a proposal for a new college entrance examination system to the Ministry of Education (MOE) after a series of public hearings and deliberations. In I 99 I . MOE announced a reform of the entrance examination system for higher education to be effected in the academic year 1994. The main ideas of the reform are as follows6l: I) More autonomy in screening of entrants will be guaranteed to individual colleges and universities.

2) Individual colleges and universities can screen their own qualified entrants by using different combinations of HSR. score of Higher Education Ability Test (HEAT). and College's or University's Independent Test (CIT). Each college and university can have their own entrance examination policy by adopting one of the following four options~ Option Option Option Option

I: 2: 3: 4:

Screening Screening Screening Screening

only based on HSR. based on combined data of HSR and HEAT. based on combined data of HSR and CIT. based on combined data of HSR. HEAT and CIT.

Among the four-options. the fourth one is expected to be widely accepted by many institutions.

HSR will be mandatory data for colleges and universities to take into consideration to the tune of 40 percent of the total screening score. HSR will be composed of ?tudent's achieved scores (80 percent) in subjects laid down in curriculum and scores of non-subject activities such as school attendance and participation in student body activities (20 percent).

HEAT will be designed as a psychometric test like SAT (Scholastic Aptitudes Test) in the U.S. HEAT will replace current CEAT. The object of HEAT is measuring general scholastic ability of subjects focusing on the areas of language. mathematics and method of inquiry. and English. HEAT will be managed by MOE twice a year. Students can use the higher score of the two tests.

CIT will be offered by colleges or universities which have their own independent test policy.

Colleges and universities which attempt to develop CIT are recommended to offer it in no more than three subjects excluding Korean. mathematics. and English.

The 1994 proposal is expected to have some positive effects on high schools and higher education institutions. First. high school programs will be expected to normalize to some extent by the importance of HSR in the application. Students who wish to enter colleges or universities will have to pay attention to the normal courses of school learning first of all in order to keep a good HSR. Second. higher education institutions will have some autonomy in developing selection policies of their own. Within the MOE's mandate. each college or university

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

49

can devise their own screening policy option and offer their own test in case they offer CIT. Third. instruction and learning for general learning ability will be highly facilitated in schooling by the introduction of HEAT. This implies that rote memorization in subjects will be discouraged.

But then it is not quite certain that the 1994 proposal will affect the whole process of schooling-e.g .. in ¡removing many ill-effects of the examination-oriented curriculum. The severe competition between students will be the same as before. The new proposal seems to be far from a comprehensive measure to deal with persistent problems related to college entrance examinations.

Several problems can be easily identified in the policy making and administration of the entrance examination system during the past decades. The system has been operated in a quite unstable way. The testing methods built in the system have devastated the quality of secondary education. Coupled with the vested interests of university -and schooling dominated by preparatory courses for college entrance. many students have been victimized as failures in their own career development.

LONG~TERM

PERSPECTIVE

As discussed above. the entrance examinations system has fluctuated from time to time with a series of changes. small and large. But many attempts at reform¡ ended with failure due to short-sighted and piece-meal measures that were usually taken under the pressure of opinion from parents and university administrators.

In 1994, another fundamental change will be seen in the entrance examination policy which will give more autonomy to universities over control of the selection process. Under the new policy. the existing CEAT will be eliminated. and a HEAT will be newly implemented.

Some higher education institutions will be able to offer their own CIT. which is actually a revived FST practiced during the 1970s. In spite of rational merits claimed by its advocates. it is quite doubtful that persistent controversies over the entrance examination system for higher education will be resolved or lessened with the new policy.

Probably one of the basic reasons for the many changes in the entrance examination system may be a lack of direction or long- term perspective among policy makers. There are some consistent principles that one may easily find if he looks at the nature of the entrance examination system and its direct impact on secondary education. and indirect impact on the schooling process as a whole. These principles may include such guideline as: I) Universities should have their own autonomy in their admission policy. Ti)at means that government intervention on admission policy should be limited to a supportive and coordinating role to ensure quality education.

2) The standard for selection should be appropriate to the purpose of the ideal and objective of "whole person" development laid down in the school curriculum as well as in the pursuit of excellence for higher education.

3) The opportunity for higher education should be open to individuals who can be benefited by it. However. expanding opportunities should be adjusted to the standard of quality education as well as to the demand for manpower development.

The entrance examination systems. which went through major changes in the past were not reformed in such a way that they could realize these principles. Many changes were made between opposite poles¡ without any persistent viewpoints on underlying principles.

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If the policy makers in the past made efforts to take into account these fundamental principles as a consistent and long term perspective, they would have not been blamed for such endless changes in the entrance examination systems. Founding a set of firm principles which can lead the direction for an admission policy for higher education is critically needed.

CREATIVE THINKING Despite the frequent changes, it is surprising that multiple choice tests have been maintained as the only evaluation method for decades in standardized tests like CEAT and CEPOT. With increasing disputes over use of objective tests for entrance examinations, subjective questions have been employed in recent years in the CEAT. But they are not subjective tests in the sense that they do not examine the candidates' own independent thinking. which is commonly exercised in essay-style tests like GCE in England.

Abitur in Germany, or Baccalaureat in France.

Due to the direct impact of multiple choice tests on schooling, the process of instruction and learning has been distorted and turned into a mode of cramming for examinations. Questioning, debating. observation. or experimentation are hardly experieced in the classroom. An enduring focus on the content of textbooks is effective in multiple choice tests to a great extent. That's why most high school students try to do their best to extend their study time for textbook learning wherever they may be. in school or at home.

In this respect there is no room in schooling to ensure educationally important objectives such as the ability to think independently, the ability to make rational decisions in dealing with controversial issues, the ability to share thought and experiences with others, and so on.

In a word, creativity is not cultivated in the mind of students.

Despite its harsh criticism on irrelevant evaluation methods, the MOE did not make any significant attempt to depart from the existing policy. Policy-makers think that there is no other way except to use objective questions in order for them not only to escape from the pressure of parents for objectivity and fairness on the results of examinations, but also to process the examination results of several hundred thousand candidates in a limited period of time.

In terms of administrative convenience, the authorities' approach can be justified. If. however. one agrees that evaluation methods of examinations like the entrance examinations for higher education have a crucial impact on the quality of general education. he/she could easily say that administrative convenience can not be a dominant factor in the entire entrance examination method. As long as concerned authorities do not break their bureaucratic stance, the examination system will stifle the creativity of growing generations.

The current enrollment rate of higher education is 37.0 percent in Korea. as of I 988. In comparative statistics, Korea is one of the highest-ranked nations. after the U.S. and Canada. in terms of the enrollment rate in higher education. While the total number of high school graduates was 7.09,000 in the academic year of 1989. the quota for the admission to colleges and universities was 307,000 7 1 This implies that the opportunity for higher education in Korea is guaranteed for youngsters to a large extent.

In spite of this fact the existing quota for higher education can not meet the demand of parents who demand more entry seats in colleges and universities. Accordiig to statistics, 880,000 candidates applied to the HEAT (Higher Education Achievement Tests) for admissions into higher education institutions in 1990. The candidates outnumbered high school graduates for that year.

In fact 282,000 candidates among the total applicants were identified as "repeaters" 8 l More than 550.000 youngsters fail in the entrance examinations for higher education every year.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 199 1

5I

This situation reminds one of the fiercely-competitive old senior civil-service examination system for the selection of bureaucrats from among Confucian scholars. This was practiced for centuries in Korea until the late 19th century. The bureaucratic officialdom then was maintained by recruits from among learned young men through such a civil service examination system.

Of course. only young scholars of the ruling class were eligible for the examination back then. The examinations were given to test the candidates' Confucian scholarship. The best way to prepare for the examinations was to memorize as many of the classics as possible.

Recitation and memorizing then were the dominant learning method. There were many failures in the civil service examinations. The unsuccessful candidates went at it again and again in ensuing years.

There are some similarities between the examination system of the past and today's entrance examinations when it comes to the degree of competition and the manner of preparation. just as success in the old civil service examinations guaranteed a high social status. wealth and power. the admission to top universities and colleges is considered the most powerful means of achieving personal gain today.

In this respect. one may argue that the zeal for higher education in Korean society is a transmitted symptom from the tradition of yesteryear's civil service examinations.

In addition to this examination tradition. structural changes of Korean society since the late 19th century have played a key role in the explosion of the people's expectation for education¡. During the past one hundred years. Korean society, by invasion of foreign powers and the impact of western civilization. has undergone a series of structural changes such as the demise of the Chosun Kingdom. japanese colonial rule. liberation and division of the country.

U.S. military control. establishment of the Republic of Korea. the Korean war. and political unrest in recent decades.

These changes took place in such a way that new authority structures replaced old ones so that existing value systems and interests of ascriptive groups were usually destroyed or denied. Under this changing situation. education became one of the most formidable instruments for people to achieve their goals.9l Most employers in Korea tend to pay wages primarily based on the level of education of employees instead of experience or level of productivity. Less educated employees earn less than the more ed_ucated .. The following table shows the disparity of monthly wages according to the level of education and experience:

Table 1. Wages according to level of Education and Experience 10l unit won Period of Experience

Level of Education High School Graduates 2-year Junior College Graduates 4-year College Graduates

less than I year

1-2 years

3-4 years

5-9 years

235.000

265.000

307.000

395.000

291.000

332.000

376.000

462.000

4 18.000

468.000

538.000

662.000

As indicated on the foregoing table. high school graduates with a 5-9 year work experience were paid less than four-year college graduates with only one (I) year's experience. With such

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a wide disparity of wages between high school and college graduates. it is quite natural that everyone tries to go to college at all costs. This wide gap of earnings in accordance with the educational level is considered a critical factor in escalating competition among Korea's youngsters for higher education.

One other factor which leads to fierce competition for admission into col!eges and universities is the increasing expectation of parents. a new generation with a tendency to have fewer children than their own parents. New generation parents equipped with modern knowledge and values tend to have only one or two children. and they are prepared to support any level of education for their children. In the meantime. some parents are eager to provide their children with higher education for a different reason.

That is. those parents who did not have an opportunity for higher education themselves want to actualize their unrealized goals by sending their children to college. It is not surprising that over 96 percent of boys¡ parents and 9 I percent of girls' parents in Korea hope to send their children to colleges or universities. 11 l Along with this culturaL occupationaL and familial context school authorities themselves tend to induce students to prepare themselves for college entrance examinations. Most general (academic) high schools prefer college preparatory courses to vocation-oriented courses for those students who want to enter colleges or universities.

Over 92 percent 9f general high schools conduct college preparatory courses. Even some vocational high schools are transformed into general high schools in order to offer college preparatory programs. During the 1980s. 70 vocational high schools changed into general high schools. The following table shows that general high schools have increased while vocational high schools have proportionately decreased since the 1970s. 12l

Table 2. Percentage of Students by General vs. Vocational High Schools Classification

1971

198 1

1989

General HS Vocational HS

5.2.1 (398) 47.9 (500)

59.0 (781) 4 1.0 (621)

68.4 (1.084) 31 .6 (588)

CONSEQUENCES As a consequence of the problematic college entrance examination system. the whole process of schooling is distorted and often seems to have turned into a system for preparing .students to take the entrance test.

A high school student takes 26 subjects for three years. attending I. 156 school hours for at least 204 days a year. A survey shows that 3 5 percent of high school students go to school before 7:30 in the morning and over 50 percent return home after 8:00 in the evening. 13l Some of these students study at private tutoring institutes after school.

They do not have time to think for themselves. read books besides textbooks. play games for physical exercise. participate in social service activities or share friendship with their peers.

The competition makes them treat each other as a rivaL rather than a friend.

In spite of this bitter competition. it is remarkable that students do not drop out of school.

However. a few students have committed suicide in protest. One of them left a note that read: "Is happiness guaranteed only by the entrance to a top-ranked university? I wish to devote myself to interesting work that suits my aptitude without going to college ... " (Joong-ang Daily News. March 19. 1990)

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREAN A 199 1

53

Two-thirds of more than 500.000 students taking the entrance examination suffer from frustrated experiences every year.

TRANSITION The system is in transition from the centrally devised arrangement to a decentralized method.

That is what the new proposal attempts to do from 1994. But can it solve most of the problems in question? The answer on the part of many experts seems to be negative. One of the reasons behind this reply is their belief that the new proposal relies more on administrative convenience than on basic educational principles.

Once again the question is whether Korean society is dead set on eliminating the "entrance examination hell." If the reply is yes. then there should be a far more comprehensive and concerted effort taken on the part of all social sectors.

The process is similar even in politics. Where a fuller democratization is needed. there should be participation in the decision-making process on the part of the populace.

There is on the other hand something that employers could well do to help the situation: eliminate differentials in wages between high school and college graduates. In this respect some encouraging signs have been perceived in the manufacturing sector in Korea.

Indeed. where many college graduates are unemployed. high school graduates are gaining the experiences of labor. It would help dampen the overheated zeal for higher education. and contribute toward producing a more balanced manpower pool for 'industry as a whole.

Still in alL the wage gap is too large between the two groups of youths to be fair.

In the education sector. at least three things should be taken into consideration . First the entrance examination system should be guided by the criteria of quality education as the most fundamental principle.

At the same time. three things must be done in regard to education. The entrance examination must be guided by the fundamental principle of education. A diverse evaluation method of the kind common in European countries should be encouraged. Then a measure should be offered for able students to have adequate opportunity of being selected for admission into college. And then the whole schooling process. dominated by preparation for the college entrance examination. should be critically reconsidered to make it possible for students to lead a sounder pattern of life and develop a well-rounded personality.

Second. college entrance preparatory programs should be selective for academically talented students. Schools should try to pay more attention to those students for whom higher education is supposed to be unsuitable because of their aptitude and ability. Career-o~iented programs in a variety of fields should be provided for them. Schools. that is to say, should depart from a stereotyped way of teaching that means little for those students not interested in having a college education.

Third. high school authorities should pay more attention to those students who are sitting right there in the classroom but who seem invisible to their teachers. Sadly, in the eyes of so many teachers. getting their class well-prepared for the college entrance examination is everything.

~ (The original text of this article was written in English and wntributed for exclusive use by KOREANA.)

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

Footnotes I. Bae Chong-keun et al, National Surve!l on Education (Seoul: Sinla Publishing Co.. 1988) Bae Cheon-ung. Choi Sang-keun. and Park ln-jong, Anal!lsis of Korea's View of Education, (Korean Educational Development Institute RR-86-15. 1986) 2. Ministry of Education, Education Statistical Year Book 1990, (1990) Korean Educational Development Institute, Educational Indicators in Korea, (1989) 3. Ministry of Education, Education Reform of 80's, (1983) 4. Ibid 5. PCER. Improvement of College Entrance Examination S!lstem, (1986) 6. Ministry of Education, Outlines for the Improvement of College Entrance Examination S!lstem, (April, 1991) 7. Ministry of Education, op cit, (1990) 8.1bid 9. Kwak Byong-sun, The Impact of Industrialization on Cultural and Educational Development in Korea: Recommendations for Educational Policy, (paper presented to the Conference on Education and Culture in Industrializing Asia, February 21¡23. 1991. Open University, Bangkok) 10. Lee )ong-jae et al, A Stud!l of the Reorganization of the High School S!lstem in Korea, (October, 1990) II. Bae Chong-keun op cit.

12. Lee )ong-jae op cit.

13. Suh Chung-wha and Kim Tae-kon, Toward the Improvement of the School Normalization Polic!l. (Korean Educational Development Institute, RR 85¡34, 1985)

Mothers pray for their children's success at a school gate where the college entrance exam is being held.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 199 1

55

EDUCATION TOP REASON BEHIND RAPID GROWTH Schooling For Economic Takeoff Bae Chong~keun

orea has achieved a rapid economic development since the 1960s. registering an average annual growth rate of 8.2 percent. Considering the size of its territory and insufficient natural resources. many people say that Korea's economic growth in recent years is simply "a miracle." Small wonder. The entire country was virtually a heap of rub-

K

ble in the wake of the Korean War (1950-53). which destroyed 80 percent of its material property.

The size of the Korean Peninsula is only about one hundredth of the U.S. Its reserves of natural resources are absolutely insufficient. Its output of crude oil. for instance. is practically nil. It therefore has to depend nearly entirely on foreign imports for raw materials. and is now the world's lOth largest natural resources importer.

How has a nation under such circumstances been able to attain such an astonishingly rapid development? The answer is rather simple. Korea has fine human resources. Koreans are. generally speaking. well~ducated and hard-working.

A great majority of Koreans are marked by an outstanding enthusiasm for education. A recent poll found that 96.6 percent of all Koreans want to send their sons to college and 94 percent want to send their daughters to college. The same poll disclosed that 80 percent of all Koreans believe that they must give their children a good education in spite of any kind of sacrifice for themselves 1l.

Now. what does education mean to the Koreans? What makes them so enthusiastic about education?

The answer may be found in Korea's historical. political and cultural background. Actually, many scholars have tried to find their answer in this way. However. I believe there must be another approach: I wish to explain that Koreans have traditionally regarded education as "the most reliable property." In order to understand the meaning of this answer. we need to under. stand the history of Korea.

It is universally believed that of all nations in the world. four nations are credited with outstanding enthusiasm for education. They are the Jews. the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese. Do their histories have any common characteristics?

Of course. they do. First all of these four peoples have had the experience of having been defeated in war. Second, they have the common experience of long civil wars and armed conflicts with neighboring nations. Third, their religions unanimously emphasize the importance of education.

Among these nations who have experienced frequent wars or even foreign occupation. it

Bae Chong-keun. born in 1932. is the dean of the Graduate School of Education. Dongguk Universitlj. in Seoul. He obtained his doctorate in education from the Universitlj of Wisconsin. Madison. Now he concurrentllj serves as the president of the Korean Societlj of Finance and Economics of Education, and a member of the National Council of Education.

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

may be just natural that people consider political power. social position. or even economic fortune to be ephemeral. in other words. unreliable assets that may be lost any moment. ¡They may think that well-educated children should have a more lasting value than all these in a society prone to chaos.

During their modernization process in the last century. Koreans have been able to realize even more clearly that education is truly indispensable in their endeavor to overcome various adversities. Throughout the dark years of colonial rule that began shortly after the dawn of the 20th century and a subsequent war. education obviously lent them the greatest strength to fight against the tide of the times. although it must also be noted here that the long tradition of Confucian teaching firmly implanted in their minds the belief that education is of paramount importance in a man's life.

ACCESS TO EDUCATION Apparently owing to such an increased recognition of the value of education among the people. the access to education has remarkably expanded in Korea since the end of World War II and the national liberation. The overall school attendance at the elementary level stood at approximately 40 percent during the 1940s. but it is now registered as I 0 I .5 percent. Attendance rate rose from 2 5 percent to 92 percent in the middle school leveL and from 20 percent to 86 percent in the high school level. The rate of college attendance has also increased from I 0 percent to 37 percent during the same period 2 l Due to the ever increasing rate of school attendance combined with the increasing population. the number of students has jumped at a remarkable speed. The number of elementary school students has jumped 3. 5 times since 194 5. that of middle school students 27. 5 times. and that of college students an incredible 65 times.

The average level of school education has improved accordingly. The nation had an average of 5.03 years of school education in 1966, but the figure rose to 9.0 years by 1988. 31 The average schooling of Korean workers stood at 2.96 years in 1957, but this figure also increased threefold to I 0.8 years.4l Women. who had traditionally been discriminated against in the access to education. now have a much better chance to receive school education. too. Women accounted for less than 20 percent of all college students during the 1960s. Today, more than 30 percent of all college students in the nation are women.5l

INVESTMENT The ever-rising number of students as well as the growing demand for better education necessitated greater investments. Sadly, the general educational environment has achieved no remarkable improvement over these years. due mainly to the chronic lack of funds.

The budget outlay of the central government over the years has reflected an increasing interest in education. Its 1991 budget allocates 22.6 percent for education. in contrast to 16 percent in 1965.61 Even so. most provincial governments. private educational foundations and industries have made little effort to increase their investment in education.

As a result. the proportion of total educational expenses to the gross national product decreased to 3.6 percent in 1991 from 3. 7 percent in 1968.71 The ratio of educational expenses to GNP in most advanced countries is estimated to be around 5 percent. The average public expenditure for each student in Korea accounts for about one fourth of the amount spent in advanced countries. The number of students per teacher in Korea is more than twice that of advanced countries.

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Jungle of signboards put up by after-school supplementary study centers in Seoul.

This is a big industry.

In the field of science and technology. the nation made a drastic increase in its investment from 0.84 percent in I978 to 2.I percent in I988. This. too. lags far behind most advanced countries. though . The U.S. spends 2.65 percent of its gross national product for investments in science and technology and Japan. 2.57 percent. Before unification. West Germany spent 2.8 percent of its GNP for investments in the same area 8 1 Under such circumstances. the learning environment at schools in the nation could not be improved to any notable degree. And parents have had to greatly increase expenditures for their children's education. while the government industries. social organizations and even educational foundations kept their purse strings tight.

The average Korean family spent five percent of its total expenditure for education in 196 5. and in I987 the proportion rose to I 0 percent according to statistics 9 1 In actuality. however. many families are believed to be spending up to 30 percent of their household expenditure for education to cover expenses related to schooling as well as various private tutoring. College tuition alone accounts for I3 percent of the average income of the Korean family.

In comparison with I968. the average educational cost spent by Korean parents for each elementary school student multiplied by I 0 times by I990. middle school student 3.9 times. high school student 2.9 times and college student twice. Parents are shouldering as much as 87 percent of the total educational expenses needed in and out of school. 101 In this regard. it may be said that education in Korea is carried out on the strength of enthusiasm of parents for education rather than on public funds.

DRIVING FORCE There is no doubt that education has played a vital role not only in Korea's economic growth but national development in general. Efforts have been frequently made to explain the nature of the relationship between education and economic development in Korea. which is. of course. not so simple as to be said in a few words.

In order to explain the nature of the relationship a little more clearly, we would like to dis-

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

cuss the effect of education in three areas: economic growth, redistribution of income and transformation of industrial structure.

Traditionally, it was believed that economic growth depended on three major factors; capitaL land. and the amount of labor. With the introduction of the concept of human resources in the 1960s. however. people came to realize that the quality of labor can be another decisive factor. Consequently, they came to think about the importance of education in the process of economic development because the quality of labor can only be improved through education.

There have been various studies concerning the contribution of education to Korea's economic growth. The author believes that the contribution rate of education to the nation's economic growth during the period from 1960 to 1974 was 11.66 percent. Kim Kwang-suk contended that during the period from 1963 to 1981, the contribution rate stood at 14.1 percent. Lee Sang-ki. in the meantime. asserted that the rate marked 13.54 percent during the period from 1975 to 1987. Here we are going to discuss the relationship with the results of the research by Lee Sang-ki. 11 l Before all else. we will have to take into consideration the average schooling of the workers. which rose from 8.83 years in 1975 to 10.8 years in 1987. representing a 22.3 percent increase. The annual school days increased by 31.1 percent from I .807 days to 2. 368 days during the same 12-year period. The industrial productivity of each worker rose from 88.9 to 98.1. representing a I 0.34 percent increase.

Consequently, the contribution rate of education to the industrial productivity of each worker was estimated at 0.48 percent and the contribution rate of each worker's productivity to the growth of GNP at 5.85 percent. These estimations led to the conclusion that the contribution rate of education to Korea's economic growth during the period from 1975 to 1987 was 13.54 percent. Therefore. it was interpreted that out of the 8.2 percent annual growth achieved during this 12-year period, at least 1.11 percent was made possible by education.

INCOME REDISTRIBUTION It is generally asserted that expansion of the access to education contributes to the redistribution of income. It means that an expanded educational opportunity stimulates social mobility and eventually helps the realization of a just society. But there also are different opinions.

Some insist that an expanded access to education protects and sometimes even strengthens the existing unfair structure for income redistribution. far from improving it.

We may think of three possible ways in which the expanded opportunities for education may influence the income redistribution structure in our society. The first possibility is that income gaps between the rich and the poor may be further deepened in case a broader opportunity is accompanied by increased educational costs. An¡ expanded access sounds beautifuL but in reality, those in the low-income bracket are unlikely to enjoy much of the access.

The second possibility is that those with better education may not be necessarily guaranteed to have better chances for employment. The third possibility is that those with better education may not necessarily receive higher wages or have better chances to enjoy other benefits.

Let us first look into the influence of education on the income redistribution structure in connection with the relationship between the access to education and educational expenses.

As mentioned earlier, the access to education has remarkably been enlarged throughout the nation during the last three decades. As of 1938. the national attendance rate marked 92 percent at the middle school leveL 86 percent at the high school leveL and 37 percent at the college level. 121

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59

Educational costs. however. vary from region to region. causing a considerable imbalance.

Moreover. the average income level of rural families falls far short of that in cities. Naturally, the proportion of educational costs to the total family expenditure stands much higher in rural areas than in cities. Educational costs accounted for 5.4 percent of the total family income in cities and 4.5 percent in rural areas in 1965. By 1987. the percentage rose to 8.1 percent in cities and I I .5 percent in rural areas. respectively. This indicates that the access to education is much more limited in rural areas than in cities. 131 School education still relies heavily on tuition paid by students in Korea. Tuition fees constitute an important revenue for public education funds. and their weight grows higher along with the level of school. Tuition fees account for 40 pen;:ent of the total revenue for public education funds at the elementary level. 37 percent at the middle school level. 61 percent at the high school level. and 63 percent at the college level.

Parents are therefore burdened with high educational costs. In addition to tuition paid to schools. they must also bear the expenses for a variety of private tutoring that is widely practiced for college entrance. Private lessons on school curriculum usually begin in elementary school. but some parents even begin with children of pre-school age.

It is taken for granted these days in Korea that chances for admission to good colleges increase in proportion to the amount of money spent for private lessons. The national average of annual spending for private education of each high school student in the high-income class is estimated at 983.000 won (US$1.357). which is US$257 more than 797.000 won (US$1.100) spent for each student in the middle-income class. The average spending reached I .05 I .000 won (US$ I .452) in Seoul. compared with 751.000 won (US$1.037) in townships (myon) .141 We may now conclude that an expanded access to education does not necessarily bring about a fairer distribution of income because residents in rural areas and those of the lowincome classes have to face heavier educational expense burdens.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES It remains generally doubtful whether those with better education have better chances for employment in Korea. In order to get an answer to this question. we may take a look at the employment rates of the graduates of schools of different levels. Contrary to the expectations of many people. the employment rate of high school graduates increased from 38.0 percent in I 968 to 70.8 percent in I 988. while the rate dropped for college graduates during the same period. The figures indicate that the nation's labor market has greater demands for technicians than specialized manpower.

Our next question is how much wage difference results from the level of education one received. It may be a matter of course that the wage should be commensurate with the amount of education and investments made for it. In reality. however. this theory seems to be losing much of its validity.

Let us look through another set of statistics to better understand the actuality. As of I 990. the average annual spending for one high school student totaled US$2, I 69. inclusive of both public and private expenditures. Taking this amount as the basic index (I 00 percent). the average spending fbr one middle school student stood at 9 I percent (US$ I ,979) and that for one college student. 204.7 percent (US$4.439). 151 Then. how much of a wage difference was incurred by the differing levels of education? Taking the average wage of high school graduates in I 975 as the basic index. the wage of middle school graduates marked 61.9 percent and that of college graduates reached 214.4 percent in the same year. But the differences remarkably narrowed to 84.5 percent and 209.2 percent.

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respectively. in 1987.

The wage gap between middle school and high school graduates narrowed by 23 percent. and the gap between high school and college graduates by 5.2 percent. during the 12-year period from 1975 to 1987. It is expected that the gaps will further decrease in the 1990s. 161 We may summarize that. during the 1970s. the wage difference incurred by the level of education was greater than the difference in the amount of money spent for education. But the wage gaps have been gradually approaching the gaps in the investments made for education in recent years. Therefore. it is assumed that the need for higher education may be felt less acute in the future.

INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE Industrial structure of the past usually transformed as a consequence of the discovery of a new continent or a new natural resource. But the industrial structure of today does not change due to such incidental factors but to systematically accumulated knowledge and technologies.

In this regard. education has tremendous influence on the transformation of industrial structure nowadays.

Changes in the industrial structure do not always take place merely as a result of the development of science and technology. Instead. an industrial structure can al,so be changed with a long-term policy and educational program. Imagine that the nation¡ s industrial structure of 20 years later is expected to consist of 5 percent primary industries. 30 percent secondary industries and 65 percent tertiary industries. The society has to prepare itself for such a structure through the education of its members to train the necessary human resources. And such preparation has to begin here and now.

The Korean government has been carrying out a series of five-year economic development plans since 1962. The Sixth Five-year Economic and Social Development Plan. which is currently under way. includes a five-year educational development program. All these years since the I 960s. supply of manpower necessary for industrial development has been among the primary objectives of educational development programs implemented by the Korean government.

The nation's industrial structure in 1965. as analyzed in view of the composition of the working population. was comprised of 58.5 percent primary industries. 10.4 percent secondary industries and 31.2 percent tertiary industries. The proportions changed to 45.7 percent. I 9.1 percent and 35.2 percent. respectively, in I 975. and then to 21.9 percent. 28. I percent and 50.2 percent. respectively, in 1987. 171 There must have been various reasons behind these changes. but it is certain that the supply of manpower was among the most important ones. For example. the number of agricultural high school students increased only I .2 times during the period from 1968 to 1988. while engineering high school students increased 3.9 times and commercial high school students rose 4.7 times.

In the meantime. college students majoring in agriculture and fisheries increased 5.2 times during the same 2Q.-year period. while engineering majors rose 9.7 times. science majors seven times. and those majoring in commerce. administrative studies and tourism 9.6 times. 181 But manpower training for the so-called hopeful areas of secondary and tertiary industries came to surpass demands. resulting in a high unemployment rate among the specialized manpower with a college education and more. But this recent tendency may not be considered all negative from the viewpoint of reserved human resources preparing for future transformations of the industrial structure.

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA !991

61

WHAT TO DO? Since the end of World War II and the national liberation. Korean education has made remarkable progress in both quality and quantity. The average schooling of the population has notably increased and the quality of school education has also considerably improved.

Education has thus improved the quality of labor. which in tum greatly contr!buted to the nation's rapid economic development. Education has also contributed to a fairer income redistribution in Korean society by narrowing the wage gap among those with different levels of education.

One outstanding characteristic of Korean education is. however. that it depends heavily on private spending by citizens rather than public funds from the government. industries. social organizations and educational foundations. Recent statistics revealed that Korean parents are shouldering 87 percent of the total costs for education.

A high unemployment rate among specialized manpower with a college education or even better educational background has emerged as a new social problem. due mainly to surplus manpower training in the area of secondary and tertiary industries. Imbalance in the access to education between cities and rural areas remains another problem.

Education experts contend that the contribution rate of education to the nation's recent economic growth reaches II to 14 percent. There is no doubt that Korean ·education contributed more to economic development than political or social progress. A recent poll indicated that only 38 percent of the population believe that school education contributed to democratic development in the nation. 19l The greatest tasks for Korean education seem to be securing more public funds to improve the quality of education and the training of outstanding manpower needed for the 21st century.

@ (The original text of this article was written in Korean and contributed for eX£lusive use by KOREANA. This is a tra11Slation.)

Footnotes I. 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Bae Chong·keun and Lee Mee-na, The Reality of Korean Education (Seoul: Jung·Mln Co., 1988), pp. 177·183.

The Ministry of Education, Educational Statistics, concerned years.

Social Indicators In Korea (1988), p. 155.

A Report of the UNKKURK (1957), p. 41 and Statistic Yearbook (1988), p. 92.

Statistic Yearbook of Education (1968) and Budget Summary In Education (1968, 1989).

Statistic Yearbook of Education (1968) and Budget Summary In Education (1991 ).

7. Ibid.

Report on the Survey of Research and Development In Science and Technology (1988), p. 44.

Social Indicators In Korea (1988) p. 179.

Kong Eun·bae, The Analysis of Total Educational Expenditures In Korea (Seoul: KEDI, 1990), p. 55.; Ibid., p. 68.

Lee Sang·ki, The Contribution of Education to Economic Growth In Korea, 1975·87. (Ph.D thesis at Dongguk

8.

9.

I 0.

II.

University, 1989).

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

62

Education Indicators In Korea (1988).

Social Indicators In Korea (1988), p. 181.

Kong Eun·bae, Ibid., pp. 106·121.

Kong Eun·bae, Ibid.

Report on a Wage Survey by Occupation. 1975·1981': 1982·1988.

Social Indicators In Korea· (1988), p. 92.

Statistical Yearbook of Education (1968·1988).

Bae Chong-keun, Ibid., p. 187.

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

MERITS AND DEMERITS OF KOREAN EDUCATION Renowned U.S. Educator's View Horace G. Underwood

here is an old proverb: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating"'. This points out the sometimes forgotten truism that the ultimate test of something is not a plan or a theory or a process but a result. By this criterion. Korean education must be judged to be very strong and very successful.

Although other writers in this issue are covering many aspects of Korean education. including its roots and current condition. I believe that any discussion of the Korean educational system. and particularly any discussion of its strengths and weaknesses. must start with an acknowledgment of the miracle that has been achieved in the past 4 5 years.

At the time of liberation from Japan in I 94 5. less than 2 5 percent of the population. that at that time stood at only some 20 million people in the whole of Korean peninsula. received what could be called formal education. And less than one (I) percent of them were able to get even a limited version of higher education the Japanese permitted in Korea. Today for a population of over forty million for South Korea alone. the rate of literacy and primary school attendance is virtually I00 percent. and the percentage in tertiary education is among the highest in the world. This was accomplished despite the pitiful state of Korean education in I 945.

T

Besides the fact that the whole system was so inadequate even for a country of 20 million. by the end of World War II school buildings were run down and supplies practically nonexistent. Equipment had been confiscated for the war effort. and all existing textbooks were in Japanese. There was no paper for taking notes (many of my students used newspapers cut into notebook size. writing over the print). Even pens and pencils were hard to obtain and chalk for use on worn-out blackboards was a precious commodity.

Worst of all was the gross shortage of teachers. since the bulk of the I 945 teaching force was removed from education. All the Japanese teaching staff were repatriated to Japan and many Korean teachers. as the principal pool of trained manpower available to the newly independent nation. were called upon to serve the country in other capacities. Somehow the system got going in freezing (or roasting) classrooms. and teachers were scraped up from wherever they could be found.

Yet barely had the nation started to build its own educational system than the Korean War

Horace G. Underwood. the son and grandson of American Presbyterian missionaries in Korea. was born in I 9 I 7 in Seoul. where he has spent most of his life. After finishing college in the United States majoring in English and education. he served in the U.S. Navy during WW II. finally being assigned to the U.S. Army Military Government Department of Education after Korea's liberation. During the Korean War he again served on active duty and was senior interpreter at the Panmunjom Armistice Talks from I 95 I to I 953. He earned his M.A. in Education from New York University. At Yonsei University he has served as a professor of education. Chief Librarian and Acting President. and is now a member of the Board of Directors. His grandfather. a pioneer Protestant missionary to Korea. arrived in I 88 5 and subsequently founded Chason Christian College (now Yonsei University). assisted in part by funds provided by his brother. John T. Underwood. the founder of the Underwood Typewriter Company.

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

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broke out and schools were again devastated. Many buildings were destroyed. others occupied as military billets. North Korean forces systematically looted all schools for furniture and equipment. Even the blackboards were taken from the walls.

Starting from this "basket case" situation the Korean people have built one of the better educational systems in the world. a system that has provided the manpower needed on both the labor and management levels to create the industrial "Miracle on the Han" that has amazed the world. Moreover. the development was not limited to the industrial sphere but runs across every segment of Korean society, providing a model that Third-World leaders have come to study in family planning. infrastructure building and among other things. public health services.

This perhaps hints at the greatest strength of Korean education: the eagerness of the Korean people to have an education. an eagerness that leads them to make almost any sacrifice to see that their child is properly educated. Korean society abounds with stories of parents who sold their homes. even their ancestral farms. so that a child might get to a university.

Even in the depths of the Korean War. when every resource was being thrown into the effort to repel the northern invaders. the government made a decision to allow universities to stay open. helping them set up refugee campuses. and granting draft deferments to young men so as to insure a supply of future trained people for the nation. Although by objective standards the education of those early years left much to be desired. it was nevertheless far better than nothing and became the foundation for constant improvement and the advanced system in place today.

In the years since the Korean War. thousands of classrooms have been built. many new schools have been started by both the government and the private sector. Facilities are constantly being upgraded to improve the quality of education.

This zeal for education is reflected in other aspects of Korean school life. There has never been a need for truant officers in Korea. Here everybody wants to go to school. Absences. at least at the primary and secondary level. are relatively rare. Classroom discipline is not a serious problem. despite the large classes. Pupils participate willingly in such extracurricular activities as sport days. cleaning school grounds and projects for beautifying the community by planting flowers or cleaning up litter around the town.

The end product of the system takes the form of a great many people capable of reading and learning from printed matters. willing to work patiently at their jobs. used to working for long hours among large numbers of people. Thus the proud strength of Korean education is that it has been able to meet most of the needs of a developing industrial society and on ¡ the whole to meet them well.

Nevertheless. Korean education is faced with a number of serious problems and weaknesses. few of which are easily remedied. and most of which are to some degree interconnected.

As with any complex system. there is no single answer. no magic key. to the solution .of the problems. But in this writer's opinion. action must be taken soon. or Korean education will lose the impact it has had on society for the past 4 5 years.

The irony is. the very thing that has made Korean education so strong is perhaps a kind of weakness. Under the premodern Confucian educational system. social advancement was through memorizing the Confucian classics in order to pass a rote examination. The successful candidates in the fiercely competitive state examination promptly rated appointment to a sensitive government post and yangban or "noble" status.

Thus the Korean people's eagerness for education is in many ways an eagerness for status rather than content. for certification rather than for an education. for membership in an elite department of an elite university rather than following a particular field of study. To counter

64

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

the evil effects of this struggle for elite status and to meet a widespread demand for a more egalitarian society, the government has taken various steps to "equalize" education. Even so. starting at the kindergarten leveL parents try to enter their children in "prestigious" schools in order that they may eventually have a better chance to enter a prestigious university.

This tendency is most clearly visible at the time of applying to enter university, when choices of schools and departments are made at the last minute. on the basis of the competition ratios. rather than on the student's occupational goals.

ADVERSE INFLUENCE This also has an adverse influence on university education in two respects. For 12 years students have focused their entire attention on getting into university by any means. with the result that many students. having attained their goaL find themselves without any clear purpose. especially during the first year or so. Moreover. many students apply for departments in which they have no great interest simply in the hope of getting in. This also means that after admission they have no great interest in their studies. Many observers have pointed out that after the incredible pressures of preparing for university entrance. university students relax and may never really buckle down during their four years of university life.

Although introduced by the Japanese as a control device to keep too many Koreans from getting higher education. the quota system for schools is in part an equalizing device related to the concept of prestige and elitism. seeking to equalize opportunity in the face of the eagerness for getting into school -- any school. At the present time all schools. at all levels. are assigned quotas of students by the Ministry of Education. At the primary and secondary leveL schools are granted so many sections of students (usually 60 form a section) at each grade level and are severely punished if they over-enroll.

At the university level the quotas are assigned by'"department." (In Korea a "department" is essentially a group of students majoring in a subject). Schools are not allowed to open new "departments" without government permission and the opening of a new department always means the enrollment of a quota of students in that field.

The quota system of itself may not be all bad. though repugnant to concepts of school autonomy when imposed by the government. But in practice it leads to several problems. especially at the university level. As applied in Korea today. the student may apply to only one department of one university each year. This turns university admission into a kind of academic gamble as the candidate tries to guess which ¡department of which university is the best bet for admission. with personal preference usually taking second place in the choice.

Actual admission is based on a strict "cut line" (cutoff) score. counting down the requisite quota number of places from the top. One unfortunate result is that many capable candidates who guess wrong fail to enter while less capable students who guessed better get in.

This introduces the problem of examinations. Every system in the world of course has examinations of some sort. But in Korea they assume a paramount importance. Virtually no weight is given to classroom performance. There are few. if any, term papers or lab reports or other means for students to display their abilities. The examination is everything.

Moreover. the examinations are limited almost exclusively to memorized textbook information. The guidelines for the government-prepared entrance examinations at each level stipulate that the examination must not contain anything not in the authorized textbooks.

All that is required is to repeat it. There are no questions requiring analysis or reason or extrapolation from known material. Moreover. in this writer's opinion the examinations are too short for their importance. University entrance examinations take all day. But this means

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

65

about five examination hours. hardly adequate for their importance in making or breaking a student's future. , My own New York State Regents. in contrast took three hours for each subject. Semester exams are similarly short. usually just one hour. again rather short for testing a semester's work when no other evaluation is used. Moreover. so far as I know. little attention has been given to the technique of examinations. even for the all-important national examinations. much Jess in developing the skills of the individual teacher.

Closely related to the examination system are the teaching methods. although obviously this is somewhat of a chicken-or-egg-first sort of situation. Teaching is considered to be essentially the passing on of information. There is no effort to cultivate independent thinking or value judgment or analysis of material.

The teacher and the textbook have the word and that word is not to be questioned. Classes are "lectures." not "recitations." Granted that it is difficult to promote discussions in classes of 60. and perhaps too time-consuming to expect the teacher to correct 60 pieces of homework (or three times 60, if he has three sections!) several times a week. But that is really begging the question. as the class size has to some extent evolved because of the teaching methods.

The result is a blind acceptance of the "authority," with little emphasis on thinking for oneself. on analysis and synthesis. Students are in practice discouraged from questioning the teacher or the text - from being creative.

There is little promotion of intellectual curiosity. The authority, particularly written authority. is all. For example. at one time middle-school English textbooks introduced the phrase "As possible as I can ... When I tried to correct students who made this mistake. they would not believe me. The text book said it; so it must be right.

Related to teaching methods is the class size. By generally accepted educational standards. classes should not have more than 2 5 to 30 students each. with perhaps 3 5 considered the ¡ maximum. and with only I 0 or I 5 in some subjects such as languages. Nevertheless. standard primary and secondary classes have 60 students. though there is some effort to reduce this

Helplessly over-crowded elementary school classroom.

66

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

to 55 in primary school. At the university leveL large lectures of up to several hundred are not uncommon. and even labs and language classes have far too tnany for meaningful learning.

Of course. if the method is entirely lecture. with the students the passive recipients. perhaps size is not so important. But because of size. teachers simply cannot elicit responses from students either in class or through frequent homework assignments.

Another facet of teaching methods is grading. As mentioned earlier. grading is determined almost exclusively by examinations. though in many schools marks are taken off for absences.

However. it is very rare for a student to be flunked. and even rarer to be flunked out of school entirely. This is in part a cultural matter and in part a financial matter.

As noted below. the income from school fees is very important to most schools. so every student that drops out is a financial loss. More important. however. is the feeling that the student has a right to keep on trying. that to force the student out of school will blight his or her future. Exact figures are not available to me. But in general not more than I 0 percent of an entering class in a university will drop out from all causes before graduation. mostly for personal reasons. The effective screening out is done at the points of articulation: primary to middle schooL middle school to high schooL and high school to university.

RIGIDITY Another weakness of Korean education is its rigidity or inflexibility. It is a lock-step system.

There is little opportunity or even desire to adapt the system to the needs of the individual child or situation. All the children in the class take the same subject at the same time and even though the child may fall behind in one subject or another. its advance to the next grade is based on an overall score.

This is a fairly common practice in primary schools around the world. But by the time children reach secondary schooL and even more in university. one expects the system to be flexible enough to meet the variety of needs and situations of the variety of students. In Korea. the secondary level is most glaringly rigid. though the term applies across the board. Students in middle and high schools. sixty to a class. sit in the same classroom all day. taking the same subjects. whether in Seoul or in the mountains or by the seaside. whether bound for university or not (all are assumed to be). and if a student falls behind in one or two subjects. too bad.

The only variations are that high school students have a choice of one of three streams: humanities. sciences or fine arts. There is also one hour a week in secondary school of "home room" which allows some scope for individual interests. but obviously this is very limited.

This rigidity applies to almost every facet of Korean education: The ministry not only determines the quotas for each class and sets the same subject matter country-wide but demands the same accounting procedures for all schools. public and private. sets school fees and salary rates and governs the minutiae of every aspect of the schools. It is very difficult to introduce innovative techniques or experimental programs because of this all-or-nothing. everybody-alike .' situation.

At the university level the entire syllabus is heavily profession- or department-oriented. A high percentage of the courses are required or are electives within the same department. In the Humanities and Social Sciences over half the credits will be within the department while in the Natural Sciences the number will be as high as 80 percent.

There is no real concept of "liberal arts and sciences" or "general" education. What is called general education in Korea is more properly basic or common courses. such as languages or physical education. At no point is there "a process of learning in which a definable subject is studied to such depth that it is possible to develop from it general principles that will then

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

67

be applicable in a situation unforeseen."* Finally there is the touchy matter of finances. On the one hand. Korea can be said to invest a lot in education. The sacrifice of parents to send their children to school has already been mentioned. And they will spend large sums for tutoring. for supporting extracurricular activities. and for presents for teachers. On the other hand. various statistics can show that the sums spent on education are too low in per capita terms compared with other countries.

Parenthetically, it must be pointed out that vast unreported sums go into the system in the form of presents to teachers. subsidies for class and school activities. etc. Figures are capable of many interpretations. but tuitions at the university level now run the equivalent of approximately US$3.000 per year. compared to US$15.000 to $20.000 at American universities. while at the same time faculty salaries in Korea are almost equal to faculty salaries in most American universities. In other words. in terms of faculty salaries. Korean university fees are approximately one fifth of American university fees.

Moreover. through a system of tax benefits that have enabled American universities to build up endowments. and through government grants. both direct and indirect student income provides as little as 20 percent of the cost of university education in some schools and seldom more than 75 percent while in Korea the schools have to depend almost entirely on tuition fees for financing. Not only does this work against the quality of education - inadequate facilities. poor student-teacher ratios. etc. - but it also makes schools reluctant to drop any students.

Combined with a general cultural reluctance to flunk a student there is an unspoken recognition of the fact that only in the most extreme cases should a student be dropped from the rolls. Of course an increase of funding will not solve all the problems of Korean education.

Nevertheless. better financing of the system at all levels would contribute greatly to many of the solutions. Student-teacher ratios. classroom size. and with it the opportunity for more flexibility. improved facilities for libraries. audio-visual equipment computerization. etc. all depend to some extent on greater financing.

At the same time. it is simplistic to blame everything on the lack of funds. A change of attitude. a change of priorities. would lead to a re-â&#x201A;Źvaluation of how available funds should be used.

In conclusion. it must be stated that although Korea has every reason to be proud of its accomplishments in education over the past 4 5 years. as it passes from the era of rapid development (for both education and the nation) to an era of stability it must face some serious issues.

Above all. I believe it must no longer simply tinker with the various specific aspects or with the problems separately but must analyze the whole social framework of education ~nd reexamine the true goals (not just slogans adopted by successive administrations). Korea must take steps to reform the system. retaining its strengths. especially the zeal and enthusiasm for education of the Korean people and focusing on ways to make the system and Korean people more adaptable to the needs of a democratic nation in the modern world.

Something like the Carnegie Report of the 1920s in the United States or the Robbins Report of the 1960s in the United Kingdom is needed to set the goals for Korean education as we face the new century - the new millennium. ~

(This article was originally written in English and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA.) â&#x20AC;˘ Nuttgens, Patrick. The Impact of the 'Robbins Report' on British Higher Education". Innovation in Higher Education. ed. Park Tae-sun, 1973. Yonsei University Press, Seoul.

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

BUSINESSES DEMAND HIGH~SKILLED GRADS Colleges Urged to Meet Industrial Demand Kim Yoon-tai s a result of its remarkable economic progress since the 1960s. Korea has emerged as one of the fastest growing NICs (newly industrializing countries) in Asia. Indisputably. one of the major factors behind Korea's emergence in spite of its poor natural resources concerns its "well-educated and high-skilled" workforce.

Manpower requirements in Korea. both in quantitative and qualitative terms. just like those in any other industrialized or industrializing country. have varied in the main because of differences in the changing level of its industrialization. In the early stages of industrialization in Korea. spanning most of the I 960s. manpower supply outstripped demand and caused serious unemployment problems. Then in the mid-1960s. the demand for simple. low-skilled or "diligent and cheap" workers began skyrocketing.

In the 1970s. the focus of manpower demand shifted toward college grads with technical knowhow and managerial potentials. This decade was marked by a sharp disparity between demand and supply; there was a notable surplus of low-skilled workforce and a critical shortage of highskilled manpower. This once again underlined the pattern of Korea's double-tier labor market.

The soaring economic growth in the late 1970s. when the annual GNP growth rate often exceeded a memorable I 0 percent. kicked the demand for high-skilled manpower sky-high. This. coupled with. strict government control on college and university enrollment. dramatized structural deficiencies for producing a sufficient volume of well-educated and high-skilled workers. A fierce recruiting war by top corporations for top grads inevitably touched off a sharp rise of youths seeking higher education - and high-skilled jobs.

In the I 980s. the bitter lesson learned in the I 970s led to a relaxation of government control on college and university enrollment capacity. This was intended to make it easier to meet the demand from businesses. The government had drastically expanded college and university enrollments.

Special emphasis at the same time was placed on escalating the number of science and engineering students. But then to rectify the structural imbalance of supply and demand for highquality labor was not the only reason behind the government action.

The nation's educational system had come under mounting pressure from the fast-rising number of high school graduates seeking college education. Geared to the stiffly competitive college and university entrance examinations. especially to the entrance tests of top schools. the system produced an expanding army of entrance test repeaters. It also gave rise to an abnormal fever of private tutoring across the country. To defuse the crisis and upgrade the quality of college education. the government adopted a "graduating student quota" system. allowing colleges and

A

Kim Y()(Jn-tai. born in I93 5. is dean of the Graduate School of Education. &!gang Universit!J in Seoul. Professor Kim received his Ph.D. in educational administration at Florida State Universit!J in the U.S. He formerl!J served as director of the Department of Educational Polic!J Studies at KED! (Korean Educational Development Institute) and director of the Bureau of Development and Diffusion at MDRI (Man/X)~Wr Development Research Institute).

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

69

universities to admit more students than they can graduate.

This supply-side manpower policy by necessity backfired. The result was a much greater surplus of college-educated workers than before. The abrupt jump in the number of college grads entering the labor ¡market inescapably brought about another type of sectorial unemployment problem.

One irony then was the overall glut of well-educated workers was accompanied by continuing critical manpower deficiencies in fast-growing high-tech and capital-intensive industries.

Consider the widespread credentialism and wage differences among workers with different educational backgrounds. corporate preference for college-educated workers. upsurge in the number of high school graduates and growing individual incomes. and you know the fervor for college education is unlikely to vanish for a long time to come. Sadly, it is the same story all over again with what is described as a morbid obsession with "first-class" universities and "popular" departments on the part of many high school students and their parents.

This of course means that college education should be more closely attuned to individual and industrial needs. But reformations of college education alone cannot be a panacea. There must be some appropriate social and economic measures taken to eliminate fundamental reasons behind the high unemployment rates among college graduates in Korea.

For this reason. this paper attempts an analysis of facts about the supply and utilization of collegeeducated manpower. The result of the analysis might offer a basis for¡ identifying some of the outstanding difficulties. My hope is that it might also prove to be a help in developing better college education and employment policies.

Table 1. Quantitative Growth of Colleges (1965-1990) Year

No. of Colleges 70 71 72 85

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990

Ill 118

No. of Students 105.643 (23.761) 146.414 (32.641) 208.986 (55.439) 402.979 (90.634) 950.058 (263.335) 1.056.126 (306.419)

No. of Graduates 36.180 23.515 33.610 49.735 120.836 170.881

(6.115) (6.073) (9.717) (15.812) (44.669) (64.344)

Notes: I) The statistics cover only four-year colleges. The Teachers¡ College is included in the statistics after 1985. since it became a four-year college in 1981. The same is applied to the other tables.

2) The numbers in brackets represent coeds.

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annals. 1965-1990)

DISPARITY One factor of development that has characterized South Korea since liberation from Japanese colonial rule is an astonishing growth of demand for school education. The expansion of demand for higher education has in fact been nothing less than "explosive." The steep climb in the number of college entrants and graduates has also produced many questions about the demand and supply of a highly educated labor force.

To begin with. it must be noted that the percentage of fresh college graduates securing employment has over the years been dropping significantly. This has been particularly notable after the the mid-I 980s when a downturn in industrial activities led to a continued retrenchment of the labor market.

The employment rate of fresh college graduates. with the exclusion of those either admitted into graduate schools or enlisted in the military service as conscripts (South Korea's are con-

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Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

script armed forces). declined from 71 .8 percent for 1975 to 52.1 percent for 1985 . It edged back up to 56.3 percent in 1990.

The critical employment picture for college grads in Korea is also underlined by the fact that the ratio of them in the total of unemployed people has been steadily rising. It soared from 8.0 percent for 1980 to 17.5 percent for 1985 and to 25.3 percent for 1989. In sharp contrast during the 1980-1989 period. Korea's overall unemployment rate descended from 5.2 percent to 2.6 percent with 4.0 percent posted for 1985.

Table 2. Employment Trend of College Graduates Classification

1975 (A)

No. of graduates Admitted into graduate schools (B) Enlisted in the military (C) (D) Employed Unspecified No. of graduates entering labor market (E)=(A)-(B+C) Employment rate (D)/(E)%

1980

1985

1990

33.610

49.735

. 120.836

2.179

6.088

12.302

12.795

4.076 19.635 7.720

4.796 28.349 10.502

13. 163 49.744 45.627

7.830 84.658 65.598

27.355

38.85 1

95.371

150.256

71.8

73.0

52)

56.3

170.881

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annual. 1975-1990)

Table 3. Share of College Grads in Total Unemployment Classification

1980

1985

1989

Total unemployment (rate: %) College graduates' unemployment The share of college graduates in total unemployment (%) (rate: %)

748.000 (5.2)

622.000 (4.0)

459.000 (2.6)

60.000

109.000

I

8.0 (6.2)

17.5 (6.6)

116.000

25.3 (4.8)

(Source: Economic Planning Board. tfle Annual on Economically Active Population. 1980-1989)

Second. the excessive supply of college graduates has caused and has been intensifying a downward migration of youths to jobs not requiring a background of college education. Until the early 1980s. the percentage of fresh college graduates who found jobs in professional. technical. administrative and managerial fields hovered on or around 56 percent. Since 1985 the percentage kept going downward and hit 49.6 percent in 1990. The rest obviously took up clerical or other semiskilled occupations.

To bring this trend into a clearer focus. an analysis of the occupational composition of ceillege graduates (including junior college graduates) is attempted for the 1960s. the 1970s and the early 1980s.

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71

Table 4. Occupational Composition of Employed College Graduates Classification Total employment Professional/technical Administrative/managerial Clerical Others Share of professional/ technical employment (%} Share of clerical employment (%}

1965

1975

1980

198 5

1990

12.564 6.087 99 1 2.6 58 2.028

19.635 9.94 1 1.1 42 2.412 6.140

28.349 15.035 1.107 5.435 6,772

49.744 22,503 3,298 9,866 14.077

84.658 36,545 5.440 20.488 22, 185

56.3

56.4

56.9

51.9

49.6

2 1.2

12.2

19.2

19.8

24.2

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annals. 1965- 1990)

In the I 960s. about 438.000 fresh college graduates annually found employment. Of them.

69.2 percent were employed in such traditional areas defined as professional/technicaL administrative/managerial and clerical (mainly for junior college graduates) fields.

In the I 970s. the three fields accounted for approximately 348,000 or 87.6 percent of 397.000 college graduates who newly found employment during that decade. During the I 980-198 5 period. an additional 716,000 college graduates found jobs. Of them. 480,000 or 67 percent were employed in the three traditional occupational areas. This analysis shows that the disparity in the supply and demand of college graduates was severe in the 1960s and the early 1980s, compared to the I 970s.

Table 5. Occupational Composition of College Graduates (unit: I ,000 persons. %)

Classification

1960- 1970

1970-1980

1980- 1985

No. of college graduates Professional/ technical Administrative/ managerial Clerical Sales Service Agriculture/ forestry/fishery Production

438.0 (100.0}

397.2 (100.0}

716.3 (100.0}

124.0 (28.3}

2 15.8 (54.3 }

189.6 (26.5}

28.1

(6.4}

I 51. 1 (34.5 } 60.9 (13.9) 10.1 (2.3} (2.0} 8.6 55.2 (12.6)

36.0

(9.1}

58.1

(8.1 }

96.3 (24 .2} (7.9) 31.2 6.5 (1.6)

232 .0 88.3 39.6

(32.4} (12.3) (5.5 }

- 3.4 14.8

(0.8) (3.7}

(4.4) 31.6 77.1 (1 0.8}

Note: The statistics include junior college graduates.

(Source: Economic Planning Board. Annual Census and Housing Reports)

Now more and more college graduates are employed in areas not related to their majors.

This trend has been particularly pronounced since the 1980s. Until the 1980s. the percentage of college graduates finding employment in areas related to their majors was, on the average.

57 percent.

The figure has since fallen to a mere 40 percent. Although college education should be dis-

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Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 199 1

tinguished from vocational school education. its contribution to Korean industry can obviously rise when education-job correlations are enhanced. The weak link that now exists clearly amounts to one of the factors. a major factor behind the high level of unemployment among college grads and the low level of their morale.

Table 6. Education~Employment Relevance Classification No. of college graduates (A) entering the labor market No. of graduates employed in areas related to their (B) educational background No. of graduates employed in areas unrelated to their (C) . educational background No. of unemployed graduates (D) (B)/(A) (%) (C)/(A) (%) (D)/(A) (%)

1975

1980

27.355

15.566

4.069 7.720 56.9 14.9 28 .2

1985

1990

38.851

95.37 1

150.256

22.3 56

37.922

62.826

5.993 10.502 57.5 15.4 27 .1

11.822 45.627 39.8 12.4 47 .8

21.832 65.598 41.8 14.5 43.7

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annals 1975-1990)

Table 7. Estimated Manpower Demand of High~tech Industries (unit: person)

Field

1989

199 1

1996

200 1

Total Microelectronics Mechatronics Optical technology New energies Materials Genetic engineering Aerospace Others

58.049 33.286 7.057 892 39 1.301 1.993 4.142 9.339

93.538 55.222 11.7 12 1.637 132 3.334 2.787 6.262 12.452

204 . 143 123 .534 23.4 72 3.348 254 9 .1 48 5.468 15 .1 95 23 .724

348.964 209.474 46. 115 5.473 1.1 4 1 16.897 9.56 1 26. 136 34. 167

Ann. Avr. Ann. Avr. Growth Growth Rate(%) Amount 16. 1 16.6 16.9 16.3 32.5 23.8 14.0 16.6 11.4

22 .243 14.682 3.255 382 92 1.300 631 1.833 2.068

Note: The industry-wide estimates given above are based on a survey of 12 specimens.

(The figures exclude the demand of research institutes and colleges.)

(Source: Korea Industrial Technology Association. An Analysis of Manpower Demand Trends of Major Businesses. Jan. 1990)

In spite of the overall oversupply of workforce from colleges and universities. the shortage of manpower in high-tech industries is turning increasingly acute. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1988. many Korean firms have concluded that colleges are not keeping up with the mushrooming manpower requirement of high-tech industries.

It is evident that the manpower demand from these industries will keep expanding in the foreseeable future. A survey jointly conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 199 1

73

Korea Industrial Technology Association of 12 business groups including Samsung (the largest of Korean conglomerates) in I 989 estimated that the demand from high-tech industries for college-educated manpower would grow at 16 percent annually to reach 3 50.000 in 2001.

The largest demand will originate from microelectronics, followed by mechatronics. aerospace, new materials. genetic engineering, optical technology and among others. new energy sources.

In 1986. the Ministry of Science and Technology named 10 major high-tech fields as targets of intensive government assistance: information industry. mechatronics. precision chemical processing, new materials. genetic engineering. aerospace and maritime industries, 21st-century transportation, advanced medicine. environmental engineering and advanced basic technologies.

Sure enough, the government has recognized the dangers of a manpower shortfall in hightech industries. Lured by promises of a secure job and a good career. more and more high school grads indicate that they would like to major. once admitted to a college, in subjects related to these industries.

WIDENING GAPS In addition to the altogether distressing picture for college graduates, there is another knotty issue: widening gaps in employment chances depending on what you major in at college and sex inequality in employment. In turn, this has been escalating the number of high school grads forced to choose their college majors against their will.

Not surprisingly, this is still another fact that elevates the number of college entrance test repeaters. A recruiting survey carried out in February, 1990. revealed a highly predictable score: what you choose for your college major becomes a determining factor for your employment chances. In 1990. as has been the case in the previous years. medical students topped an employment list with 73.6 percent of them getting themselves placed on payrolls immediately after graduation.

This was 24.8 percent higher than the overall employment average of 48.8 percent. Second place went to engineering (technology) majors with 59.9 percent followed by economics and business management majors with 55.4 percent. Graduates from all other divisions were below the average point.

Among language and literature majors. graduates from the Italian department curiously topped the same list with the rate of 56.6 percent followed by Japanese and English language majors.

Korean literature majors contributed the largest number of graduates to mass media. Graduates from Korean and English departments were tops among those hired as teachers.

Though humanities and social science majors outstripped their language counterparts in the rate of enrollment in graduate schools. it was the other way around in the pure employment rate. Their chances of employment were particularly low with ordinary companies. Graduates from tourism and mercantile marine courses chalked up the highest pure employment rates. while theology was No. 1 in terms of the percentage of graduates advancing to graduate schools.

Law and public administration division graduates did best in obtaning government jobs. The natural science division showed a relatively low employment rate. although they ranked high in graduate school enrollment. What's even more notable is the fact that microbiology and biochemistry departments had more than 20 percent of their graduates admitted to graduate schools.

Engineering majors registered a high employment rate. Cast-metal design. refrigeration. industrial safety and printing engineering invariably posted good employment rates of no less than 80 percent. The unusually low employment rate of 2.8 percent presented by aerospace majors was the result of a singular situation: 97.2 percent of the graduates chose to be con-

74

Vol. 5 No.2 KOREANA 1991

scripted and perform their military duty immediately after graduation.

Within the group that includes agriculture. forestry. animal husbandry and fishery. ¡ fishery and forestry majors scored the highest and lowest rates respectively: 70.1 and 26.5 percent.

In the home science division. pedology came up to the top both in the employment and graduate school enrollment rate. In addition. many of them took up teaching careers.

The medical division was marked by a twofold increase in the percentage of graduates who started their own practice. Particularly strong in this field were dentistry. oriental medicine and pharmacology. In terms of pure employment. nursing was the highest with 91.7 percent and environment/health care the lowest with 33. 3 percent.

In the teaching division. architecture registered the highest employment rate of 86.7 percent. 74'.5 percent higher than Chinese language didatics. which placed the lowest with 12.2 percent.

Table 8. Nationwide Division and Departmental Employment Rates (1990) Divisions

Employment

Rate(%)

Department

Total

avr. (%)

high/low

Language/Literature

40.3

high low

Italian Indian

58.3 18.5

55. 3 8.6

56.0 12.9

Humanities/ Social Science

36.2

high low

Tourism Indian Philosophy

83.0 5.9

55.0 0.0

73.5 3.7

LawIAdministration

4 1.3

high low

Administration Politics/Diplomacy

45 . 1 39.4

31.3 28.5

42.6 36.2

Economics/Business

55.4

high low

Tourism Development Consumer Economics

67.6 0.0

84.2 26.7

73.2 26.7

Natural Science

37.8

high low

Statistics Geology

53.0 40.0

42.0 0 .0

48.3 6.7

Engineering

59.9

high low

Printing Aircraft Navigation

86.1 2.8

90.9 0.0

87.2 2.8

Agriculture/ Forestry/Stockbreeding/Fishery

42 .8

high . low

Fishery Forestry

70.1 26.5

0.0 0.0

Home Science

34.5

high low

Pedology Food/Nutrition

37.5 13.6

51.7 23.0

51.3 22.5

Medicine

73.6

high low

Nursing Environment/ Health Care

0.0 28.6

91.7 50.0

91.7 33 .3

Teaching

36.5

high low

Architecture Chinese

83 .3 25.0

100.0 4.0

86.7 12.2

Arts/ Athletics

41. 1

high low

Industrial Design Photography

84.9 0.0

84.6 25.0

84.8 25.0

Male

Female

0

70.1 26.5

Note: The above figures represent employed graduates as of February. 1990. excl uding those enlisted in the military and admitted into local and overseas graduate schools.

(Source: College Entrance News. March. 199 1, p.4)

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The employment record of the arts/athletics division was worse than the previous year.

Nevertheless. design-related departments ranked relatively high. with industrial design showing the highest rate of 84.9 percent.

The second gap concerns regional differences. According to Ministry of Education figures. as of 1988 the average emplbyment rate of colleges in areas outside Seoul'was 55 .8 percent. compared to 67.3 percent for those in Seoul. Ministry of Labor statistics on the other hand show that provincial colleges account for only 41 .7 percent of recruits hired annually by the 50 largest companies. 16.6 percent lower than their counterparts in Seoul. Consider the fact that of college graduates entering the labor market annually, 68 percent come from provincial colleges. and you know how countryside college graduates are discriminated against.

The same kind of handicap is told by another study. In 1988. the employment competition rate for the graduates of Seoul-based colleges was 2.4: I. while it was 7.2: I for provincial college graduates. The meaning here is obvious. When you attend a college in SeouL your chances of employment are three times better than your provincial college counterparts. Six top Seoulbased universities accounted for 33. 9 percent of college graduates employed that year. This was twice as high as that for six top provincial colleges.

This is not all. Large business groups tend to favor graduates of what is popularly called "the top-class universities" by either exempting them from formal recruitment tests or hiring them beyond the open corporate recruitment programs.

This indicates still another gap. On top of regional differences. there are differences too between "top-class" universities and others. The distribution of employment opportunities is. to say the least. uneven. All this adds fuel to the burning issue: the already overheated entrance examination competition at top universities in Seoul.

FEMALE GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT Now comes the question of coeds and students at women's colleges and universities. Women in Korea's economically active population have been steadily on the rise. from 41.9 percent for 1985 to 46.5 percent for 1989. By the same token. the overall rate of women's employment has been high: 97.6 for 1985 and 98.2 percent for 1989.

Nevertheless. the percentage of women employed for jobs suitable for college graduates was 5.4 and 7.0 percent for the comparable years. Women accounted for 29.1 percent and 34.4 percent respectively in 1985 and 1989 of the the nation's workforce. Although the number of women workers is on the rise. the clip of the climb is only glacial. Women are subject to serious job discrimination in the range of vacancies opened to them. Many compapies still continue to deny women even the chance to apply for staff positions.

Among the fields that are open to women are medicine (as doctors. nurses and pharmacists). education (professors or teachers). mass communication (newspapers. radio and TV stations. and publication). creative arts (novelists. artists. musicians. and researchers). and business (secretaries. clerks and managers). Though small in number. women are also active in law and politics and trying to work in other areas like engineering and architecture.

Since the mid-1980s. the employment rate of fresh college graduates has been rising steadily. with the growth rate of women exceeding that of men. During the 1985-1990 period. the employment rate of female college graduates showed a 9. 3 percentage point increase: from 30.9 percent to 40.2 percent. In comparison. the corresponding figure for men marked only an eight percentage point rise: from 47.2 percent to 55 .2 percent.

During the same period. 60 percent of the female graduates who found jobs were employed in professionaL technicaL administrative and managerial positions. But the percentage of fe-

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Table 9. Employment Trend of Fresh College Graduates by Sex {%)

Year

1975 1985 1990

Total Graduates

Employed Graduates

F

F

M

9.717 5.142 23.893 { 99.0) {100.0) {52.9) 76.167 13.808 44.669 {30.9) {100.0) {100.0) 64.344 106.537 25 .838 {100.0) { 99.9) {40.2)

Admitted Into Grad. School

Unemployed

M

F

M

F

M

I 4.493 {60.7) 35.936 {47.2) 58.820 {55 .2)

441 {4.5) 2.592 {5.8) 3.738 (5 .8)

1.738 { 7.3) 9.710 {12.7) 9.057 { 8.5)

4.134 {42.5) 28.269 {63.3) 34.768 {54 .0)

3.586 {15.0) 17.358 {22.8) 30.830 {28.9}

Enlisted In M ilitary

F

M 4.076 {17.0) I 3.163 {I 7.3) 7.830 {7.3)

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annals. 1975. 1985 . 1990)

male graduates employed in areas related to their undergraduate majors was exceedingly low.

Only 30.3 percent of female college graduates were employed in areas related to their undergraduate majors in 1990. far below the average among male graduates. This indicates that most college-educated female workers end up doing jobs unrelated to what their undergraduate majors were.(see Table 6 and II)

Table 10. Employment of Female College Graduates by Occupation Classification

1985

1990

Total employed Professional/technical Administrative/managerial Clerical Other Share of professional/ technical/administrative/ managerial {%) Share of clerical {%)

13.808 8.472 359 2. 192 1.785

25.838 13.752 1.028 5.711 5.347

64 .0 15.9

57.2 22.1

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annals. 1985. 1990)

Table 11 . Percentage of Female College Graduates Employed in Areas Related to Undergraduate Majors 1985

Classification Employable workforce Employed in areas related to undergraduate majors Employed in areas unrelated to undergraduate majors Unemployed {%) {B)/(A) (C)/(A) {D)/(A)

1990

{A)

42 .058

60.606

{B)

10.392

18.393

{C)

3.416 28.250 24.7 8. 1 65.2

7.445 34.768 30.3 12.3 57.4

{%) {%) {%)

(Source: Ministry of Education. Educational Statistics Annals. 1985 . 1990)

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INDUSTRY'S DEMAND Divergences between expectations from businesses and limits on the supply of manpower from colleges amount to a problem with both quantitative and qualitative aspects. In fact. the qualitative side of the problem is graver than the other side. <:luantitavely speaking. there is enough supply. But the quality is a different story. It often falls short of expectations from businesses.

In fact. the gap is widening between requirements from businesses and actual qualifications of the supplied manpower. This was reflected in a survey conducted by the Korea Academy of Industry. Science and Technology in 1988. In it 78.2 percent of the polled companies and research outfits pointed out that "although highly educated scientific and technological manpower is numerically sufficient. truly excellent workers are ¡hard to come by."

The rapid evolution of science and technology will require qualitative upgrading of college graduates. More and more will be expected to have a high level of professional knowledge. creativity. adaptivity to changes. and the ability to collect and utilize information. Demanded also will be a deeper sense of responsibility. They will be expected too to be more tenacious. positive and global in their way of thinking. more elevated in morality and "future-oriented" in their mental stance.

Businessmen's dissatisfaction with the quality of college graduates was also underlined by another survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Precisely 28.0 percent of the surveyed firms said that "despite an oversupply of manpower. qualitative competency is declining".

Colleges today seem incapable of making their students attain an adequate level of education to enable their graduates to keep apace with the development of high-tech industries.

The range of departments on both undergraduate and graduate levels is too narrow to meet mounting demands for specialized manpower demands from businesses and industries.

Rigidity in the management of student quotas is limiting the ability of the government and universities to effectively cope with changing demands for manpower. particularly in high-tech fields. Another constraining factor is the shortage of modem experimental equipment in departments related to high technologies.

And then college curricula are failing to reflect industrial demands. The time-honored rigidity in the composition of curricula is causing college education to fall behind the rapid progress of technology. thus undercutting the relevance of college education to industrial requirements.

Needless to say, college education should be based ori multiple criteria apart from its relevance to industrial demands. The focus of curricula can vary from fostering ability to solving practical problems to deepening theoretical and logical understandings in certain disciplines. and to addressing the needs of future industrial society.

In this sense. current college education deserves much criticism for being too rigid to allow for a periodic review of curricula and reflect changing social and industrial requirements. This makes it hard for industrial needs to make themselves felt in the process of revising college curricula. The exclusive composition and management of curricula is denying students a chance to broaden their understanding of fields related to their majors.

Furthermore. there exist no sufficient efforts made to promote industry-academia cooperation to reflect the needs of industrial society in college curricula.

There is something even more fundamental. Conditions for college education. for instance. are not adequate to ensure the kind of manpower supply desired by businesses. To be more specific. the number of students allocated to one professor is rising instead of dropping. It was 18.8 in 1970. reached 27. 7 in 1980 and went further up to 31.2 in 1990.

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The situation is worse with financially troubled private colleges. Equipment and facilities for experiment and research are too few and too outdated to provide enough support for education and research. In I 989. government's educational spendings per college student was$ I .930. one half to a quarter of that of major advanced nations. This indicates that improvement of college education is hardly conceivable without a drastic increase in educational investment.

FUTURE TASK What has to be done?

First. there should be a sweeping reformation of college and university education with industrial needs in mind. Priority should be given to high-tech fields in considering the establishment of new colleges and departments and the expansion of student quotas. College curricula must be adapted to cater to the needs of industrial society.

Second. efforts should be made to explore the potential of college-educated manpower and maximize their utilization. At the same time various employment programs should be developed for female and provincial college graduates.

To improve employment opportunities for female graduates. occupational training should be carried out in parallel with college education. and the present lef:islation prohibiting discrimination against women in recruitment and promotion needs to be strengthened.

Development of part-time employment opportunities and operation of employment agencies exclusively for women are also required to facilitate the employment of the female collegeeducated workforce. On the part of employers. various malpractices concerning recruitment. job assignment and working conditions should be eliminated in order to rationalize personnel management and promote the effective use of college-educated workers.

Third. as a long-term solution to the surplus of college-educated manpower. efforts should be exerted to create employment opportunities not only at home but also abroad. Mediumsized companies. high-tech industries and public service sectors with high employment absorption capacity should be actively developed. Concurrently. there should be renewed efforts to foster overseas employment of the college-educated workforce.

Fourth. collaboration among universities (responsible for supplying manpower). industry. research entities (responsible for utilizing manpower). and government (responsible for supporting the supply and utilization of manpower) should be revitalized. The establishment of a network linking these four sectors will increase opportunities for closer cooperation in terms of joint research & development. and human and material exchange.

Fifth. the government should rationalize its manpower management policy by integrating and coordinating manpower management functions performed by different government agencies. In addition. it needs to develop a nationwide information network to support the formulation of effective policies for college-educated manpower development and management.

@ (This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

79

ALL ABOUT KOREANS STUDYING OVERSEAS They Once Formed Corps d'Elite Hong

Sah~myung

ne hundred years ago. a Korean intellectual named Yu Kil-jun commenced his secondary education in the U.S. in his late twenties. Due to its strict and self-imposed isolation. Korea back then was an enigma to the rest of the world and was often called "The Hermit Kingdom." As a person from this little known part of the world. he must have had enormous courage to make up his mind about submitting himself to a schooling totally different from the one to which he previously had been exposed.

To us it is not difficult to imagine how he felt about the exotic environment and how he thought about the perception of his classmates. who were ten years his junior. He must have suffered a temporary loss of identity at the very beginning of his stay in the U.S ..

The earliest record of a Korean who studied abroad dates as far back as the Shilla Kingdom (A.D. 2C-935). Then a prominent Buddhist scholar named Hecho ventured to India. His diary has significant implication as the earliest record of a Korean in a terra incognita.

0

A student abroad sees himself and his country from a distance. out of his cultural ethnocentric biases. "Cultural contact" means essentially a situation where one culture meets another.

Placed in such a situation. one necessarily gains a new frame of reference. It is through this process that many Koreans become objective in viewing reality and broaden their outlook on the world.

Major developments in the Korean ways of life have coincided with the injection of foreign culture into Korean society. This has always been facilitated by people-t~people contacts. A Korean studying abroad needs to be considered in the broader context of cultural contacts.

A student abroad is considered an agent for the interaction of different cultures and his role is to set the tone for cultural renovations and enrichment.

FLOW OF STUDENTS It seems that the major points of kickoff for an outflow of Koreans students coincide with preponderant events at home. The demise of the Choson Kingdom (1392-1910) after the tum of the century was preceded by a period of political and social disturbances that had caused many intellectuals to go overseas and into exile. They eventually returned home with newly acquired liberal thoughts and a renewed awareness of the declining fate of their motherland as perceived by outsiders.

They compared Korea to a cow about to be butchered by world powers. The liberal intellectuals formed a power to be reckoned with for social reform and posed a threat to the conserva-

Hong Sah-myung was born in 1938. A graduate from the University of Massachusetts. Amherst. he received his MA in education and sociology from his alma mater. After working for the United States Agency for International Development. he served as a senior research fellow at the Korean Educational Development Institute from 197 4 to 1980. He is currently Director of International Exchange. Korea Research Foundation . His publications include: Studies in Korea and The Development and Future Perspective of Korean Studies.

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tive nobles steeped in a fossilized culture based on Confucianism. In addition. the teachings of Confucius had been losing relevance to the new era of dynamism.

Under the Japanese colonial rule. a series of intolerable suppressions prompted a great outflow of Korean youths. Ironically, most of them ended up studying in Japan. After the Korean War. one awesome wave of Korean scholars after another bypassed Japan and headed for North America and western Europe.

The flow was so high in volume that the Korean government was compelled to enforce a policy by which only the brightest of young students were allowed to study abroad. the selection of which was made by means of stiffly competitive examinations. Sure enough. in the eyes of many in Korea. students opting for studies in advanced countries seemed to form a corps d'elite.

According to data available to me. each year then saw some 6.000 students leaving Korea until 1981. the year when a dramatic "open-door" policy was adopted by the government The outcome was predictable. The number that year jumped to I 5.000. And this level has since been believed to remain more or less unchanging. Nobody seems to know precisely how ¡many are now going abroad for studies.

After 1985 many students are known to have been going overseas with a tourist visa. As a matter of fact applicants for the student visa are said to have been declining. On the rise instead are young seekers of higher education with visas in different categories .

To Korean students. the U.S. still remains the place to go. But there has been a decline in the popularity of that country. Once just about 80 percent of Korean students bound for studies abroad went to the U.S. The percentage has since dropped to 75. due in the main to PR information services provided by educational authorities in Canada and Australia. Even so. well over two thirds of an estimated 300.000 Korean students abroad are in the U.S. The number of students in Commonwealth countries is insignificant despite the Korean students' clear-cut preference for English-speaking countries. Universities in Britain are regarded as the place to go for only postgraduate or post-doctoral programs.

Germany ranks second because of the forte of its universities in science. technology and philosophy. French Universities on the other hand are steadily climbing in popularity in the eyes of art. architecture and biology students.

Japan is making a comeback on the list. But the main reason behind this is simple. Geographically Japan is close to Korea; both countries shares cultural similarities. But on the whole Japanbound scholars only seem interested in taking language courses. Not many attend universities or graduate schools in Nippon .

Once in Japan. Korean students often seem to lose serious scholastic interest. Convinced that their country and Japan have a lot in common in their ways of life. they seem to expect it to be a comfortable stay. And that in turn appears to develop a mistaken notion among some of them that there is hardly any need for the rigors of studies.

As I have said. the Korean view has over he years undergone a drastic change about studying abroad. It once was a mark of privilege confined to elitists. No more. That chance can now be had for almost any youth who can afford it.

Why, once again. were only the brightest of students allowed to study overseas at first? Because it was believed that only the best could do well in aquiring knowledge and know-how needed for coping with a variety of problems Korea had as a developing country.

Once more. why then did the government rigidly control the outflow of students? One reason clearly concerned the country's precious foreign currency reserves. Every penny in it was needed for the rehabilitation of Korea after the war. In a Korea so deprived as a result of

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

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war and poor economy. government or public scholarship funds were the sole source of finance for studies abroad.

As Korea has kept advancing economically, a growing number of parents have found themselves capable of financing such studies for their children. Now it is not uncommon that many average Korean students are knocking on the doors of overseas universities. Overseas study is no longer a mark of privilege for the few. Yet the island of excellence has not been submerged by the rising flood of average students.

In other words. there are basically two categories of candidates for overseas studies: I) those. who. having finished the normal course of schooling at home. seek opportunities for advanced studies overseas and 2) those who having dropped out of regular school at home try to go at it again abroad.

The former usually find limits in further studies at home and so look to overseas institutes. conscious of their goals of deepening or broadening their knowledge in their fields of interest.

The latter seek often earlier exposure to overseas studies. keeping in view possible graduate studies to pursue or regarding an undergraduate program as the ultimate goal.

There are many instances among the latter where serious concern for studies and determination to achieve goals are lacking. That is not saying that the latter are inferior to the former.

Some of them are victims of the fiercely competitive university entrance tests back home.

The entrance examination in Korea is designed to test a specific set of abilities. notably the memorization of bits and odds of facts. so that those with aptitudes not geared to coping with such tests are given no opportunity in many cases to demonstrate their abilities.

Military service. which is compulsory at the age of 20. used to be a snag for the outflow of male students. The new policy allows candidates to defer their duty until they finish a prescribed course of schooling abroad. as long as they present a valid letter of acceptance to the chosen degree program.

NEW ISSUES There were times when merely having attended an overseas university earned the student an honor and the family a pride. A rosy future was ensured. with the preferred categories of employment awaiting. The old image of overseas studies was evolved from this favored group of students and it still plays an important part in decision-making for overseas studies.

However. this image is no longer true with candidates in the second group. A sizable proportion of them tum their eyes to overseas .institutes as a means of getting away from their unhappy encounter with a university or a discipline at home that they dread.

This trend is termed "an escape from reality." Placed in a different setting. they expect to "do better." not fettered by what they were back in Korea . But many of them soon find that it is not that easy. A transfer from one country to another seldom enables them to move upward. unless they make painstaking efforts.

Overseas studies by necessity require a high level of language proficiency. The problem with Korean students is that they often regard language studies as something that can be finished off in a year or so before starting the formal study of their chosen discipline. The truth of the matter is such that one foreign language can take a life-time to learn. In no way is it possible to place language studies before their major. and vice versa.

They go instead hand in hand. And Korean students. like many other foreign students. find themselves constantly haunted by the double imperatives. This reality has time and again clouded their romantic view of overseas studies.

One common mistake is that language proficiency will increase in proportion to the time

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A long queue of applicants for a U.S. student visa.

spent in the country where the language is spoken. This notion spawns a naive assumption among many Korean students that they will manage to get by with. what level of language proficiency they have reached. since time is their only solution.

The amount of time spent on it is by no means an indicator of language proficiency. Far from it. The amount of first-hand experience with foreigners and the efforts put into learning it determine instead the level of language proficiency.

There is a lack of deliberate effort to adapt to a different culture among Korean students and this generalization may hold true of Japanese and many other foreign students alike. Acculturation is as much an important dimension of overseas studies as one's discipline or language study.

Another barrier to cultural adaptation is a rather recent development of large enclaves of Korean students. notably at state universities in the Midwest and on the West Coast of the United States. The enclaves are formed out of a need to get together with their own people and quench their thirst for emotional comfort.

It is a haven for those who suffer cultural shocks and who are uncomfortable with different life styles and exotic environment.

The Koreans who were trailblazers in overseas studies in the 1950s are often retrospective of their life abroad. They are full of exciting experiences and stories spun out of direct exposure to an alien culture. Recent returnees from overseas studies have come away with little to say about it. because they have had their foot put down only on the enclave. Classrooms. labs and libraries are nothing more than stepping stones forming a cautious venture out of the enclave.

I wonder if they ever have a chance to engage in a serious discourse with foreign students on topics that require professional treatment. This. however. should not be accepted as a categorical generalization: it more often than not holds true with a segment of students abroad. familiarly called the average or the marginally qualified. It should be recognized. though. that these students are occupying an increasing proportion of our students abroad.

While engrossed in language study and acculturation. they may lose opportunities to develop disciplinary foundation. Confronted with the double imperatives. t~e Korean student is asked by situational factors to choose either one or the other.

For all arguments. "the appropriate time for studying abroad" may well be determined in

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consideration of whether one is able to acculturate. What's even more important is one's awareness of cultural roots and identity.

Leaving the country at earlier ages entails risks in that one may lose sight of his own culture and suffer a loss of his identity in his blind pursuit of one goal. A person getting away from his cultural roots or identity is comparable to a ship which has lost its anchor in choppy waters.

This makes one "color-blind" - incapable of telling new from old experiences in a situation where he should deliberately strive to experience new things. Returning from abroad. such a person will find himself placed in another exotic culture. for which he is not fit.

Cultural relativism is also not a desirable attitude of students abroad. since it causes a certain degree of aloofness as well as blind respect for each other. And that is not conducive to understanding each other.

The Koreans' perception of the world reflects American dominance. and this has a significant impact on their decision of "where to study." This has to do with the image of America as a liberator of Korea from the Japanese and as a guardian of freedom for Korea which was victimized by the prolonged Cold War. When thousands of Koreans crossed the Pacific Ocean in anticipation of the golden era of America. European countries had not recovered from the devastation of the Second World War. This set the tone for the flow of students. Another factor for the American bias is that the Korean school system is modeled on that of the United States and this provides an easy match with American universities. British universities do not look attractive at a glance. since they require another two years of schooling to pass "A" level examination. French universities are frowned upon, since they look so complicated. Australian education claims to be a hybrid of the American and British systems.

Our view of the world is the result of contacts with many countries in the world. The world is vast and diverse. It is not only advanced countries to which we should look for knowledge to bear down on our ways of life. Even other countries offer unique cultures which can be a potential source of new insights into our own problems. The countries which Korean students choose to study in should be diversified and areas of. studies should be as divergent as their interests.

FUTURE PROSPECTS The turnout of candidates for overseas studies has much to do with the educational system at home. The elite candidates. working for masters or Ph.D. degrees. have not shown a rapid increase in number compared with those of the 1970s. Rather. the increase in the r:umber of those who seek an alternative education is astonishing. and more should be said about this category of candidate.

There are some 180 institutes of tertiary education in Korea, including junior colleges (twoyear post high school). Precisely 33 percent of high school graduates go on to tertiary education. This enrollment ratio of the relevant age population is favorably compared with 28 percent of Japan. 15 percent of West Germany and 14 percent of the United Kingdom. The only industrial country which beats this ratio is the United States which marks 38 percent.

Despite such a high enrollment social demand for tertiary education exceeds by far the total number of places available at the institutes of tertiary education. The pressure is mounting for increased places at universities. but this hardly catches the attention of 'the government which holds the purse strings. There are numerous policy concerns to be addressed which counteract the temptation of increasing the enrollment quota. For a country which has come close to a highly industrialized stage. the enrollment ratio has reached a saturation point.

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On the other hand. the academicians¡ cry for high quality education is shrill. This argument sounds more cogent when Koreans seek to be originators. not imitators. of scientific knowledge.

Now that the call for more places has encountered a bureaucratic indifference. we may have to live with the present education system for many years to come.

In so far as the present system continues. a significant proportion of high school graduates spill over from the narrow bottleneck of universities. How to tap the resulting flood of human resources will be an overriding concern of the government.

One thing is sure. There is no returning to the old regulatory policy: once we are set on the road to an open-door policy, we should keep on going ahead in the same direction. The open-door policy is a natural corollary of the on-going trend of globalization. The major feature of an open-door policy is to allow free movements of students across barriers of language and culture.

As the door is flung open. we notice new trends emerging to counter the outflow of students. The shiny image of overseas studies has in part been tainted by the high turnout of the marginally qualified or the unqualified taking up overseas studies. This tainted image. together with stories of stragglers abroad. dampens the high spirits of many who have been dreaming of overseas studies.

No matter how many times they may repeat entrance tests. most students tend to stick persistently to Korean universities and seem dedica~ed to depreciating the value of overseas studies.

In Korean society which sets great store by school connections. Korean graduates of overseas universities may be alienated or find it difficult to get promotion through the grade ladder of an organization for lack of personal connections. which are more often than not established by graduating from the same school.

The trend of globalization dictates an open-door policy and there is no choice but to keep it this way. The open-door policy in its true sense must ensure a free. two-way flow of students. When you send students abroad. you must be prepared to receive them from overseas. Now is the time to envision new needs and problems associated with multi-faceted exchanges. This is the way to go into the future. @

(The original text of this article was written in Enqlish and wntributed for exclusive use by KOREAN A.)

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

85

TOKYO KOREAN SCHOOL PROVES GREAT SUCCESS Expatriate Kids Thriving in Japan S. Chang

lace: Kyujo (Imperial Palace). Tokyo. Around its storied moats. practically everyday rain. shine or even snow - thousands of dedicated happiness-seekers go jogging and panting. On or around March I since a few years ago. a healthy bunch of youngsters have been joining the stream of palaceside joggers.

Who are they? Students from Tokyo Korean School. Few of the fellow runners would be aware of this. The youths' looks are exactly like their own - Asiatic. Nor would the reason behind the athletic Samil (March I . a national holiday in Korea commemorating a 191 9 uprising against the Japanese colonial rule) be clear to most of the Japanese runners.

For the kickoff of the five-kilometer exercise. Choi Jae-han. the school's patriotic principal. always delivers an impassioned speech to explain it. But because his message is given in Korean. it proves a mumbo-jumbo to all the Japanese citizens within earshot.

What does he say for the occasion? One recent morning, Principal Choi. who was sent to take up the Tokyo job by the Korean Ministry of Education four years ago. gave KOREANA a telling answer. Said he: "Essentially what I have to tell them at the starting point hard by the palace moat is simplicity itself. I say that although the present emperor might have nothing to do with it. in that palace for long lived his ancestors under whose names Korea was colonized . All through the run around the palace. my students. I say. must bear in mind this historic fact. Similarly I would insist that they recall how under the colonial rule our ancestors suffered."

If this message sounds outlandishly nationalistic in Japan (where nationalism of almost any variety has gone out of fashion). there is nothing unique about the appearance of the school itself.

Located in a reposeful corner of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. Tokyo Korean School indeed looks as modern as any of its Japanese counterparts. The entrance hall is airy. The soundproof arrangements seem good for its clean classrooms. The atmosphere is comfortable.

Here now 830 expatriate Korean youngsters are undergoing schooling. Of them all. 420 are taking an elementary school course (six years). 160 a middle school course (three years) and the rest a high school course (another three years). Their teachers number 48.

"Ours is an excellent school." says Principal Choi. 63. He certainly is justified to say so. Consider. for instance. this year's result of college entrance examinations among its high school course grads.

It was a perfect I 00 percent. So happy is Choi with the outcome that on the wall of the school's entrance hall are pasted up strips of paper indicating at which of the universities (including such grandes ecoles as Seoul's Yonsei and Korea) how many of the grads passed the stiffly competitive tests.

There may be some Koreans back home who question this score. You see. the grads from expatriate Korean schools like Principal Choi's are graced with some "special privileges." In the university entrance examinations in Korea. the candidates from such schools have to un-

P

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dergo tests in only four subjects: math, foreign language. Korean and history.

As a matter of fact. this makes a great deal of difference from the complicated. cumbersome and downright burdensome entrance tests to which "native" candidates have to submit themselves .

Clearly the privileges in question are provided in the interest of making up for inadequacies (like the almost total lack of private tutoring of the kind which is commonplace in Korea) from which these young scholars have to suffer in preparing themselves abroad for the entrance tests in Korea. Then too the benefits like this make it easy for both government and corporations to shift employees for overseas positions.

Tokyo Korean School was launched in 1954 to cater to the needs of the growing expatriate Korean community in Tokyo. At first its students numbered but 27; it then offered only elementary and middle school courses . In 1962 a (senior) high school course was added. Four years later the school formally came under the jurisdiction of South Korea's Ministry of Education.

Today there are two similar schools in Osaka and another in Kyoto. As the size of overseas Korean communities is steadily expanding, there are also schools of this kind in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere around the world.

The financial aspect of Tokyo Korean School is typical of the rest of the overseas Korean schools. The annual budget stands at 190 million Japanese yen (roughly $USL5 million). Forty percent of this is provided by the Korean Ministry of Education and the rest is covered with contributions from the local Korean community and revenues from tuition fees (8.000 won per head or $61.5 a year for the elementary course).

Today 83 percent of the student body represents those born outside Japan and the remainder those born in Japan. The school's capacity is far from enough to meet the rising demand. One estimate is that no less than 200 Korean business firms are posting, all told, I 0,000 representatives and their families in Tokyo.

That would mean one obvious thing. More than I 0,000 expatriate Korean children are in need of education of the kind offered at the Tokyo Korean School. Those youngsters unable to be admitted into it .have to make do with education at ordinary Japanese schools.

That might spell something unfair. Principal Choi understandably is convinced that either his school's capacity should be drastically expanded or new schools like his should be opened

Tokyo Korean School Principal Choi is all smiles showing the record of a ¡¡ 100-percent success" among his school's grads in passing college and university entrance exams this year.

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Pupils in an elementary-school classroom.

in Tokyo. For now. however. there are no indications that the government in Seoul is about to do anything to rectify the prevailing situation immediately.

The student body also represents a variety of cultural backgrounds. Some of them were born and raised in the U.S. or Europe before their fathers were transferred to take up government or corporate posts in Tokyo. Small wonder. Their linguistic abilities are accordingly varied.

The school does its best to cope with this problem. For those new arrivals in Japan. the Japanese language is taught to the tune of four hours a week. Sure enough. for those born in Japan the Korean language. history and system of moral values are taught also for four hours a week.

Korean teachers at the school from time to time suffer inevitable culture shocks. Admits one: "Back home in Korea. brawls among youngsters are taken for a sign of their good health.

Not in Japan. Here simple fights between our boys and students from Japanese schools can end up touching off police investigations."

On the other hand. the teachers are deeply impressed by the "amazing speed" at which their students are developing friendship with youths from neighborhood Japanese schools.

"All this makes it possible for us to enlarge the scope of our international experience," says Ho )hang-won. 16-year-old son of a Korean engineer. He is enrolled in the school's hig~ school course. "I love this school."

The students are divided into two groups. The first is called K-class and comprises students planning to enroll themselves at Korean colleges and universities. The second is )-class - for those preparing themselves for entrance tests at Japanese colleges and universities. The Kclass is conducted all in Korean while Japanese is the language for the )-class.

No matter where these students might undergo higher education. they are constantly reminded in Tokyo Korean School of their identity. Says the hard-working principal: "I always make sure to tell my students one thing in particular. In your blood vessels. I tell them. runs the Korean blood. Remember that. I say. I say also that they should remember that without fully realizing the benefits of advanced learning. Korea in the upcoming century cannot survive competition from other countries."

The school's slogan. spelt out in large Korean hangul letters on a large plaque in the entrance hall. succinctly sums it up. It reads: Love Your Country. Study Hard and Help Each other.

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EDUCATION EXPERTS OFFER LOFTY GOALS TO PRESIDENT To Produce New Cadre Of Leadership Materials Hong Woong-sun

he philosophical ideal which underpins Korean education. reflected in Article I of the Education Law of 1946. has formed the basis for the provision of education and innovative efforts.

Article I adopted 'Hong-lk-ln-Gan. the statement of all the attributes to be developed by individuals and by society. In addition to democratic ideals and national development it emphasizes competency development and character perfection to promote self-realization.

Although it is subject to variation in interpretation with the changing demands of time. it serves as the basic idea which should be passed on. as it is. to the following generations.

Coming close to the threshold of the 21st century. we see new challenges looming largely on the horizon as the result of continual industrialization and growing inter-dependency among nations. What comes out of these trends is cultural multiplicity. followed by value conflicts and the diversification of social strata. New information and knowledge will result in a frequent reconsideration of culture and will aggravate the already confusing welter of alien influences. In the future society confronted with these challenges. 'Hong-lk-ln-Gan¡ has specific implications for education. It suggests four major attributes: Humanity. national identity. morality. and a pioneering spirit to be developed through education.

The foremost quality of human beings is respect for dignity and individual character of the person. Fostering this respect requires a balanced assortment of motivation of self-realization. emotional _and aesthetic enrichment freedom. and equality. The humanity comprising these qualities has been a common denominator of Korean people while they have lived a precarious life over many centuries. 'Hong-lk-ln-Gan¡ pervades every aspect of Korean culture.

National identity is one's consciousness of the distinctive nature of his nation and people from those of other countries. With this consciousness. one takes pride in his or her country.

In a way it means a behavioral disposition to achieve self-realization in the context of his relation with the nation and other persons. It comprises consciousness. independence. and mastery of one's own destiny. A person with these sensitivities has a positive view of the nation. its culture and history. and has a strong sense of patriotism.

Morality is kind a awareness structure that has internalized social norms. and its manifestations are faithfulness. honesty, altruism. cooperation and trust. Faithfulness is a stubborn adherence to and care for truth with all sincerity. Honesty is a righteous life faithful to the dictates

T

Born in I 918. Hong Woong-sun received his Ph. D. in Economics from the University of Washington in 1967. He served in turn as professor and dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Yonsei University. President of Duksung Women's University. and President of the Korean Educational Commission for Educational Reform.

He is currently a Special Adviser to the Korean Educational Development Institute (KED!). His major publications include: Study on New Curriculum and The Pursuit of Human Characteristics in Korean Education. This paper is excerpted and condensed from the final report which he. as acting chairman of the Presidential Commission for Education Reform. presented to President of the Republic of Korea in December. l 98 7.

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uf conscience. Altruism is a behavioral tendency to sacrifice oneself in favor of the comforts of others. Cooperation is an intention to harmonize oneself with others for the sake of ensuring the community's good. Trust is a sense of reliability built into each other in person-toperson relationships. In other words. it is a kind of glue that holds people together in cultivating friendships. Morality's manifestation in these attributes is an essential ingredient of community life.

Pioneering spirit is a behavioral tendency to break loose from tradition and venture into the unknown. People with pioneering spirit are open to change. future-oriented. creative. and rational. At this crucial juncture of the nation's development when it is about to make a leap into the ranks of industrialized countries. a pioneering spirit is passionately to be desired.

IDEAL PROFILE Today's youths will be the leaders of our future society. Education's vital role is to prepare them for the challenges of the future. Therefore. it is important to assess the future needs and define a set of attributes which will enable youngsters to cope with the future society.

This task is an important step to be taken at the initial stage of educational reform.

The ideal profile of an educated person may be drawn by comparing the future needs and the defects of the present education system. since the gap between them provides clues for the direction of educational development. Waves of change will be surging upon the shores of the future society. requiring new. creative solutions. Yet. on the contrary. creative individuality will tend to be lost in the masses of people attending schools. Mass production will be a common trend in every sphere of life. Mass production in school in particular must be a matter of serious concern. as it limits the development of individual potential. The industrial structure will resemble that of industrialized countries. and the demand for high-level manpower will increase. The explosive growth of information and knowledge will cause the advent of the information society.

Growing inter-dependence among nations will precipitate the transformation of Korea into a more open society, and ever-rising standards of living will reflect marked changes in the life style.

On the other hand. there are critical views blaming Korean education for failure to develop a sense of identity and independence. and for the uniformity of educational programs that stymied the fullest development of individual potential for self-realization. Amid the past primary concern for imparting knowledge and the consequent prevalence of rote-learning, little attention was directed to the internalization of moral virtues.

The fact that educated Koreans should assume leadership roles in the shaping of a new society highlights the qualities and traits to be developed. They are centered around the ability to live creatively with a firm sense of identity and morality. Yet these should be defined in concrete terms so that they give clear messages to professional educators.

A somewhat more detailed description of the attributes of an educated person is attempted here.

A person with self-reliance shows initiative and is self-driven to get things done as the major responsibility for the shaping of his or her own destiny. Such a person has a positive orientation toward life and the nation's history. a clear conviction about the nation's destiny. and a sense of interdependence among the constituents of the community. He is willing and prepared to become a creative participant in the making of a community or group to which he belongs. He is aware of his physical and mental characteristics and potential. and is determined not to be dependent on others. He is never abrasive. and avoids self-righteousness

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and chauvinistic attitudes. He takes pride in the nation's historical and culture heritage and is determined to develop it. This initiative and self-reliance inspire patriotism and dedication to the greater good of the nation and the people.

Creative man is disposed to inquire into the unknown and to take an innovative. unbeaten path through the thicJ<et of problems. He is flexible and rational in thinking and open to change.

In him. reason prevails over emotional impulses. He is venturesome and future-Driented. Productivity is another dimension of creativity. To be productive. one should be motivated to achieve one's self-respect. Secondly, he should have a positive attitude which recognizes and appreci· ates the value of hard work. Thirdly. striving to produce and to improve one's economic status should be carried out with honesty. One's imagination about the future unleashes a powerful drive to organize the necessary conditions to create it. Although he is accommodative of. and open to. change. he does not accept it passively. To him. change is only one option of alternative possibilities. Change is viewed as an opportunity for a new. creative takeoff into the future.

A person with moral consciousness is one who is willing to adhere to the fundamental prin· ciples and norms of the society in which he lives. Such a person has internalized the basic principles of morality which constitute the backbone of social norms. Moral consciousness has a wide connotation including ethical consciousness. democratic citizenship. emotional sta· bility. and aesthetic sensitivity to local community and worldwide needs. Ethical consciousness is an attitudinal disposition for self-control and regulating one's social behavior. Democratic citizenship includes a law-abiding spirit. patriotic cooperation. and responsible accountability.

A person of emotional stability has nothing to do with prejudice. unfairness. or injustice. Aesthetic propriety serves first as a fortress against the onslaught of ugly impulses. and makes a person work unselfishly for the common good of the group and of the world. and compels a person to fulfill the trust that others place in him or her.

The ideal profile of an educated person described in the foregoing passages suggests that a fundamental reform be made of the educational system. The direction of education reform was set forth in terms of what it aims at producing. It is explained under the headings of "Education for Subjective Consciousness." "Education for the Whole Person." "Education for Creativi· ty," and "Education for the Future." · The direction of educational reform is also described in terms of the principles which should guide operational and managerial practices. The principles are excellence. individuality and autonomy. For education to bear fruit. the essential conditions are humanization of the education process. and the society's proper use of education opportunities for youth and adults.

MOTIVATED PEOPLE One of the educational goals is to produce people motivated to inherit. develop, and transmit the nation's cultural heritage to succeeding generations. The source of this motivation is the awareness of the meritorious virtues of the cultural heritage. Education has a vital role to play in fostering this awareness.

Throughout earlier millennia. Koreans as a people have suffered numerous setbacks. largely due to the dearth of resources coupled with foreign military incursions. Consequently. our ancestors lost pride and confidence. with the resultant prevalence of pessimism. Education should play its role by rooting out this traditional inertia and by inspiring a movement to redis· cover the roots of the contemporary culture. This dormant potential. once bestirred. will rally the people behind the cause of national modernization and reunification.

Korean education has long been blamed for merely imparting knowledge. Confronted with a constantly shifting frame of reference. knowledge imparting is no longer relevant. What is

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needed is a balanced assortment of knowledge. commendable character for interpersonal relations. and physical health which unleashes a powerful driving force for national development. Educational reform should provide a turning point to switch goals from knowledge-bound education to individualized education dedicated to nation-building in an international context.

CREATIVITY Korean education. primarily concerned with imparting knowledge, has emphasized rotelearning. Restless with the breathtaking increase of school-age population. schools have paid little attention to individual needs with the resultant failure to ignite curiosity. While the current of science and technology was rapidly advancing. edu~ation has remained in the backwater. But the harsh reality of fierce competition among nations does not allow our education system to remain stagnant. It is a matter of survival to keep the rapidly advancing frontiers of technology moving forward . The nation will ber.ome a permanent straggler in the race unless educators part with the conventional mode of dishing out knowledge and shift into a new mode which ignites the fuse of creative potential.

FOR THE FUTURE Looking into the future. we foresee a set of new challenges coming upon us. The explosive growth of information. the frequent outdating of knowledge. the advent of a highly industrialized society. and the growing competition among nations. cloud the crystal ball and defy predictions as to what the future society will be like. What is expected of education is to develop an ability to adapt to a changing situation. Besides instilling basic knowledge and skills. educators should do justice to experiences which develop skills of application and adaptability. Opportunities for education should be diversified to reach different masses of people of all ages and of any social status. In this connection ideological education which keeps people's desire for reunification burning deserves strong attention.

In order to remain competitive in the international community, the educational system should undergo a massive reform which ensures its excellent quality. The time has come for Korean education to end emphasis on quantitative size. and rather to emphasize creative peaks of excellence. Education directed toward this goal taps individual potential to the fullest measure and assists in the achievement of self-realization.

Education which seeks excellence requires highly qualified teachers. diverse programs. and teaching methods that cater to individual needs. Evaluation should be employed as a scheme to feed back information useful in improving the effectiveness of instruction. In this connection. accelerated graduation and grade repetition should be introduced.

Uniformity and rigidity have been the hallmarks of most educational management up to now.

These were the major factors which stifled individual characteristics of learners. To pursue the inherent goal of education. that is. to stretch one's potential to the fullest measure. diversity and flexibility should be reflected in managing the schools so that these attributes complement instruction catering to individual needs. Together with the diversification of the operational mode of the school. multiple programs should be employed which fit a wide range of individual differences.

AUTONOMY As educational administration has been highly centralized. schools have been heavily dependent on administrative authorities. and. therefore. were given only limited latitude for administration. Earlier administration was characterized by orders from the top down. In view

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of the new challenges ahead. schools should be equipped with self-governing skills which will be developed when they are given a full degree of autonomy. which develops a sense of responsibility and accountability.

As local autonomy is institutionalized. each school should be encouraged to manage itself with its own creativity and resources.

The impact of environment on education is evident. While facilities and buildings in other sectors are modernized. most school facilities have remained as they were 40 to 50 years ago. and far from providing an educative climate. Building an educative climate requires more than simply erecting new. modern buildings. The neighborhood which surrounds the school should be denuded of possible contaminants. and an internal climate filled with humanity should be built in classrooms and schools. The combination of the three will create an environment which binds a teacher and pupils by humanitarian bonds.

Still. the educational program is considered the monopoly of school professionals. But the diversification of the school's role and clientele demands that the school be functionally linked to social organizations. It has become inevitable for the two to share the responsibility of educating both youth and adults. The time is ripe to intensify the educational efforts of all the people in a way that converts the society in its entirety into a field of learning. To begin with. the educational function of the home should be restored. and greater efforts should be made to tap the educational function of mass media.

The nine basic principles mentioned above indicate the direction in which educational reform should be made. They serve as the guideline to the formulation of specific policy steps to be taken. They are considered major benchmarks in the development of Korean education toward the 2 I st century.

EDUCATION REFORM The school ladder of progression from one level to the next higher level is the backbone of the education system and the critical path of educational and social development. The need for the reform of this school system has become more acute. as it is torn among myriads of demands coming from within and without the educational system. Prominent among new demands are the equalization of educational opportunity. the excellence of education. the diversity of programs. the effectiveness of management and administration. relevance to the needs of human growth. and integration with society. In order for the educational system to cope with the new challenges. reform of the school system should be promoted along the following lines: First. educational opportunities should be expanded and enlarged.

Second. a new education ladder should be developed which assists in the maximum development of individual needs.

Third. educational programs should be diversified so as to meet the unique needs of school and community.

Fourth. career guidance should be strengthened with a final view to enhancing the productivity of school education .

Fifth. the present structure of the school ladder should be reconsidered in terms of its relevance to individual and social needs.

ENTRANCE EXAM As Korean society moves toward a democratic. industrialized society. its education system is confronted with diverse functions resulting from its changing milieu. The diversification of

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educational functions has added new dimensions to the debate over the selective function of education. The selective function is formalized as an entrance examination system which sets the tone for the educational programs. The reform of the entrance examination system should be promoted in a way that ensures the relevancy of educational programs to social needs.

First. the entrance examination system should encourage individual learners to achieve selfrealization through careers that suit their aptitudes and abilities.

Second. the entrance examination should ensure the freedom of individual learners to select the school and the area of study which suit their aptitude. It should ensure the school of selecting the students that suit the school's educational goal.

Third. since the entrance examination affects the tone of educational programs on the preceding school level. it should be such that keeps the educational programs on track in view of the true goals of education.

Fourth. testing items should be diverse enough to cover not only the cognitive domain but affective and motor-psycho domains as well in order to facilitate the development of attributes for the whole person. Besides a written test. other forms of tests should be developed to guide the activation of a well-rounded character.

TEACHING METHOD What is included in the curriculum greatly influences the kind of person produced through the educational process. and how curriculum contents are organized determines the pattern of instruction. Who determines the curriculum and how it is operated accounts for the pattern of school education. The issue of "who controls curriculum operation" focuses our attention on the degree of flexibility and autonomy granted to the school.

In an ever-shifting frame of reference. the major thrust of educational effort should ideally be directed toward the development of autonomous. rational thinking. and the learner's problem-solving ability. Educational contents and teaching methods should be reformed so as to serve these educational goals. Accordingly, evaluation needs to be changed to assist in the accomplishment of these goals.

Diverse needs inherent. in contemporary society calls for greater attention to be directed to local needs and autonomy. Viewed from these standpoints. the present curricula which are standardized at the national level have to be improved very much. The operation of the standardized curriculum is centrally controlled. leaving little room for a creative approach on the part of the school. The centralized compilation of textbooks leaves little room for free c;ompetition among authors. and this accounts for the low quality of textbooks and the lack of variety. In view of the mounting cry to diversify textbooks. it is inevitable to allow free development of textbooks. with a committee composed of specialists to be vested with quality .control.

Together with the reform of curriculum and textbooks. a new teaching method which develops critical thinking and inquiry is a must. and a nationwide achievement test needs to be conducted on a regular basis.

FACILITIES & ENVIRONMENT Even though educational facilities have steadily been expanded since the liberation. the expansion of facilities has been outpaced by the growth of the school-age population. with the result that physical conditions for education are far from meeting requirements. Finances for upkeeping educational facilities have also been stagnant. while public and industrial facilities have been modernized. Consequently. many primary and secondary school facilities are in

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need of repair and modification.

Because rapid increase of the school-age population has given rise to unmanageably large schools and overcrowded classrooms. optimizing the size of schools and classes is an urgent task to be completed before an attempt is made to improve the quality of educational programs. This priority task of controlling class size and school size nevertheless cannot dispense with a marked expansion of internal space and a vast improvement of school buildings and classrooms. The shortage of internal facilities is particularly serious. Securing laboratories and equipment is a related high priority task. Together with the external and internal facilities, a few basic welfare amenities for students and teachers should be improved to provide an adequate environment for education.

It goes without saying that teachers are the key factor for the success of education. Enhancing teacher quality and improving the conditions of teaching are an urgent need. But this task encounters a host of problems related to recruitment in-service training, working conditions and treatment.

Against this backdrop, the major thrust of innovative efforts is directed toward streamlining the teacher education system, professionalizing teachers. reforming the teacher in-service training system, ¡and providing incentives and welfare benefits for teachers.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY The basic goal of science and technology education is to enhance the scientific and technological literacy of students and at the same time to produce high-level scientific manpower which will spearhead the nation's scientific and technological development. Under this goaL science and technology education is charged with the following missions. First it should elevate the scientific and technological literacy of students to the world standard. Second. it should identify gifted students in science and mathematics at an early stage and provide systematic and intensive programs which develop their creative and intellectual abilities. Third. it should establish a research system on the university level which effectively raises creativity and productivity in scientific and technological advances.

PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE Having experienced a breathtaking expansion of educational opportunities, our postwar period is ripe for higher education to strive toward qualitative improvement. The pursuit of excellence in higher education is effected by upgrading educational conditions and streamlining the support system in such a manner as to help each institution to maximize its ability to teach and do research. This effort of each university to improve should be linked to the development of a quality control system which comes from an internal motive for advancement into the ranks of internationally-recognized. first-rate institutions of higher learning. This will raise the academic standard of higher education and the prestige of degrees conferred.

The excellence of higher education feeds on the diversity of programs. which depends on the functional specialization of universities. In some fields. it is futile to seek institutional development by duplicating the programs offered by the other advanced institution in the same region. Strategy for institutional development beyond the essentials should center on the kind of leadership the university intends to develop and state the university's willingness to cooperate with others in any part of the nation where its expertise is needed. Thus. universities should assist each other in complementary relations.

Ensuring excellence of higher education is an attempt to sharpen the competitive edge of domestic universities with those overseas. This amounts to characterizing programs in a way

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that strengthens them in the dynamic world of competition. and it is through this process that higher education in Korea should rise to the international standard. Regional studies offer a powerful leverage for raising the international competitiveness of a university.

LIF&LONG EDUCATION The rapid transformation of society has brought new challenges demanding that educational efforts be continued beyond the range of regular schooling. To cope with the new challenges. learning opportunities should transcend not only time limitations but spatial limitations. The school is not the only place where learning takes place. Education at home and at large in society itself assumes an increasingly important dimension. The present educational system. marked by its limited purposes cannot meet the diverse educational needs of adults unless it undergoes an inevitable transition from school-centered education to life-long education. which ensures that the school is bound up with home and society in a mutually complementary relationship.

The educational system should undergo a structural change which highlights the following three tasks; the first task is to initiate a life-long education function of schools by opening the doors to the out-of-school population; the second is to link education and occupations in a way that ensures free trafficking between the two as need arises; thirdly. facilities should be expanded to serve life-long education within and without the school.

The major thrust of innovative efforts in educational administration will be directed toward decentralizing the centralized function and allowing local administrative authorities to be selfreliant and flexible about issues which influence local education. An urgent task is to provide the institutional base. which allows local administrative authorities to realize true autonomy.

Local autonomy suggests that the administrative authority be restructured. that functions be reorganized between central and local government and that staff be re-educated to serve the public professionally.

The principle of educational administration is that the creativity and self-reliance of each school should be respected. Control and direction imposed from the top down undermines the diversity and autonomy of the school. Educational administration is given a mandate to effect a shift of concern from control and direction to support and encouragement.

The importance of autonomy is greater in higher education for two reasons: by virtue of the university's being usually administered by professional experts of long experience holding earned degrees of the highest order. and by virtue of the university's serving local needs. The services of universities for the regional community may be heightened by the org~mization of a regional university consortium which facilitates the sharing of resources and cooperation among member universities.

INVESTMENT To finance the implementation of the planned reform of education requires a cost increase in educational investment. The percentage of the Ministry of Education (MOE) budget to GNP should rise from 3.34 percent at present to 4.7 percent by 2001. In budgeting and allocating resources. education should be given higher priority in competition with other sectors of the economy, and a scheme should be evolved to inspire the contribution of the private sector to education. Reactivating the PTA flexibility in determining tuition fees. and encouraging donations from the private sector are some measures compelling consideration.

Emergency measures are suggested to fund the planned reform of education and to meet urgent requirements of physical conditions. The private sector could offer great potential for

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contributing to educational financing. The principle that education is the responsibility of those who are served by it suggests greater responsibility for financing be imposed on local autonomous bodies.

SUMMING UP The educational reform proposed here. the largest in scale that has ever been attempted. is the natural corollary of the long-sustained. rapid development that brought us into an era of dynamism. The importance of this momentous task is highlighted. not only in view of a host of problems that beset Korean education today but in anticipation of the inexorable mandate. that is. to produce a new cadre of Koreans who. starting within these very next few years. will begin to lead our developing Korean society into the 21st century. Looking into the future. we envision an industrialized. informationized. open and internationalized society.

To fulfill this goal. it is essential and indeed very urgent that education start making great strides immediately toward a higher plane of educational quality because of the long lead time required to truly arrive at the targeted goals.

The proposed educational reform sets its eyes on the realization of the envisioned profile of Koreans to lead the development of Korean society in the future and the fulfilling of the inherent goal of education. Having set forth targets. nine principles were advanced as criteria ¡for assessing progress toward the targets. Under the targeted goals and in accordance with the principles. ten major tasks have been defined. which pertain to elementary. secondary. higher education. and social education.

Fulfilling the objectives specified for educational reform will be possible when the Government is wholly committed to go ahead with the proposal for educational reform. Nonetheless. the government's resolution is not enough to ensure success in this momentous undertaking.

It requires the combined efforts of policy makers. educators. parents and students alike. based on their common understanding of the spirit underlying educational reform. Going beyond the realm of education. the implementation of the reform is entirely contingent on the enthusiastic participation of all citizens across the board. including industrialists. journalists. religious leaders and others representing all walks of life. Government must welcome everyone's share of the reform. conscious of its responsibility to listen to the will of the people who are in turn exercising their responsibility for the educational system.

With this in mind. the Presidential Commission for Education Reform has addressed educational and related problems in a broad context and has forged a new system which provides quality education and is responsive to emerging needs. Recommendations presented here are the outgrowth of the Committee's patient involve~ent in this arduous undertaking. They suggest actions to be considered or taken by policymakers. educators. parents and other concerned citizens.

Among the tasks included in educational reform. the concerned ministries should initiate action to implement those pertaining to their areas of concern. The majority of these tasks pertain to the Ministry of Education. But a considerable number go beyond this boundary to require the commitment of. or cooperation of. other ministries. Given this fact. the proposed educational reform is a joint venture involving divisions of the Government. The concerned ministry is not only invited but urged to participate actively with professional pride in its contribution to this reform from the very beginning.

The general¡trend in the past was that each ministry was self-contained. with no concern or only lukewarm attention. if any, for the affairs pertaining to other ministries. But the proposed educational reform is of such a magnitude that it cannot be left to a single ministry.

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As much as possible the opinions of other ministries are honored. and they are responsible for their share of educational reform and cooperation with others. Educational reform requires that common threads cut across all concerned ministries. In the final analysis. education is nothing but a common ground for all people.

COORDINATION MECHANISM It is recommended that a coordination machinery be built between the concerned ministries, which continuously provides information and assesses the outcome of these educational efforts and allows for the fullest utilization of resources. of the concerned ministries in plotting the future of educational development.

The Ministry of Education assumes the major responsibility for the implementation of this educational reform. But projects involved in or related to growth of education go beyond the realm of the Ministry of Education's usual domain. A multitude of factors outside the educational system exert a profound impact on education in one way or another. In the highly industrialized society. an educational system is confronted with new challenges which are beyond its reach. Today's education is beyond the purview of just the school. and administration of the system has become too diversified to be limited to the Ministry of Education. In this sense, an interministerial coordination machinery. which brings all education-related works under a single purview and provides consistent support for educational development is very much in order.

The coordination body is expected to play a vital role in reflecting the concerns of the other ministries in policy formulation ..Although its importance is recognized. there is little need to make it a permanent organization . It may well have an ad hoc status. making it flexible in operation and responsive to emerging needs.

Educational reform stands a better chance for success when it is based on a positive view of education. It is recommended that the government schools. and mass media become one in promoting a broad perspective of education among citizens.

a

In view of the necessity of promoting educational development in long-range perspective, it is recommended that a mechanism be set up to implement these educational reforms after termination of the work of this policy-formation group. the Presidential Commission for Education Reform.

The Presidential Commission for Education Reform is a provisionary entity to be dissolved with the submission of the proposal for educational reform. This raises the question of who is responsible for the implementation of educational reform. The unique nature of this particular reform which will take an unusually long span of time to implement argues for the creation of an organizational base to follow up beyond the purview of the present committee.

Many suggestions were advanced as to ways of following up the recommendations on reform. Weighing these suggestions in view of prevailing circumstances. a sizable majority gravitate toward the desirability of reinforcing the present Central Education Advisory Council so that it plays a pivotal role in the implementation of this cross-ministerial education reform.

To systematize evaluation as an on-going process. it is desirable to schedule an interministerial evaluation meeting to be held once a year. with the President chairing the meeting. It is through reports presented at this meeting that progress can be assessed in all areas of educational reform under the joint responsibility of all the ministries concerned. @

(This article was originally written in English and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA.) 98

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KOREANA Interview

NEEDED: BRAVE NEW PHILOSOPHY SHIN S&HO, President of KEDI hen it wmes to the question of Korea¡ s schoolinq system. few people are better qualified to articulate A Seoul National University qraduate. he earned his Ph.D. in education from the 1971. On returninq home the followinq year. he ventured forth on what has bewme his life work as research specialist in education. Three years aqo he took over as president of Seoul's prestiqious Korean Educational Development Institute (KED!). the nation's ultimate think-tank on the art of learninq and teachinq. In a recent interview with KOREANA. Shin discussed what he knows best and did so with a qreat deal of candor and insiqht. Reproduced below are some of the questions posed and replies he offered.

W than Shin Se-ho.

University of Pittsburq in

KOREANA: Once so many campuses in advanced countries were the hottest beds of dissent. No more. The coUeges and universities in these countries are quiet again.

Not in Korea. Indeed the sole exception in the world today might be the case of Korea. Seoul's security authorities say that in a span of a little over four months from the onset of this year, there broke out 3,840 demonstrations in and out of campuses around Korea, involving a grand total of 1.2 million coUege and university students.* Why do campuses in South Korea persistently "burn," as a foreign caUer put it? Or would you caD it a uniquely Korean educational syndrome?

SHIN S&HO: There is one thing that people overseas tend to forget and that is something altogether basic and unique to Korea. Ours is a country divided against itself. Sad to say, confrontational conditions accordingly prevail. To me as a professional education watcher. this historic fact of political life on Korean peninsula always makes itself felt behind all these demonstrations.

Still another thing by the same token is telling. It is perfectly safe to surmise that behind these "demos" constantly is the assumed presence of some agents provocateurs who have something to do with the other side (communist North Korea) .

I'm distressed to think that as long as the confrontational conditions exist between the two Koreas. it might be "structurally" hard. if not altogether impossible. to do away with student marches and clashes with police.

K: Agents provocateurs?

S: Yes. But so thoroughly camouflaged are they that nobody seems to know their number.

And then there is an undeniable fact that some students are easily swayed by the professional cqre activists. Such students might come from the background of exceedingly impoverished families or families whose members at one time or another had suffered at the hands of previous administrations in Korea-and who therefore are dead set on evening past scores with the present government. *The figure includes a few staged by non-students.

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Shin Se-ho, President of Korean Educational Development Institute.

But the number of students in this category is limited-up to 20.000 or a mere two percent of our country's college and university student population.

K: Any other factors you might like to cite?

S: Well. of course young people anywhere in the world develop a sense of justice. or what they call justice. Many of our young people are no exception. They insist that in our society the haves endlessly escalate in personal wealth while the have-nots ceaselessly drop down in poverty. In short they persist in a belief that there's something totally wrong with the distribution of wealth and therefore with the government's fundamental stance on economy.

For this reason and little else. some of the youthful marchers consider it a sacred mission for them to battle authorities.

Life. as you know. is not that simple. The bulk of the student body and the bulk of the general public would not support such a hot-blooded but nevertheless naive theory. But 0nce taking to the str~et the battling demonstrators almost by necessity tend to go to the bitter end. Police. on the other hand. h?ve to respond by similarly going to the bitter end.

What ensues is a vicious circle that played up big on television screens in many countries. has given rise to an entirely wrong idee fixe abroad that South Korea is always in the throes of a political crisis.

K: Isn't there a tradition in dissent among Korean students, a tradition dating back to the bad old days of Japanese colonial rule in this country?

S: There's obviously something to that view. Indeed Korean students played a memorable role in the March 1 uprising (in 1919) against the japanese and often spearheaded the nation's independence movement. Then. too. fierce student demonstrations did lead to the downfall of Dr. Syngman Rhee's authoritarian regime in 1960.

The fact of the matter is, I also perceive one impact from of this "examination hell." Having crammed like mad through several years to pass the terribly competitive college and university entrance exam. many students tum just simply sick and tired of studies. At the same time. once having passed the tests. they at times seem overwhelmed by an accumulated mountain of frustration.

Under such a mental condition. and for some students. nothing might be easier than joining the marches than staying in classrooms for more studies.

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K: What to do?

S: There can be no cure-all. But I must say that we Korean teachers and educators have clear-

ly failed in one vital area. I talk of the utmost importance of teaching our youths the ABC of democracy. Under the existing strong pressure. we might have become downright professional in coping with the job of preparing our students for the entrance exams. but not at making them inculcate a deep sense of respect for the code of ethics in democratic citizenship.

One outcome has been depressingly inevitable. Once failing to have their views accepted by the majority of their peers. then immediately many students transform themselves into campus and street fighters dedicated to try to have their say registered by means of demonstration.

That would not work. Why? Our youths have done little study about the answer from the elementary school stage.

I'm dwelling upon part of a short-term measure. In a long-term area. there also must be political and economic reforms. But that is the arena for political and busineS$ personages.

K: Changing the subject, what would you say marks education in South Korea most of all?

S: This enthusiasm for higher education for which so many of my foreign confreres say that there is but one adjective: striking. Consider. Our rate of literacy is second. only in the world to Japan's. Yes. as many of 35 to 36 percent of our high school grads enter college or university. And that's second only again in the world to the U.S. rate. Beside. to most parents in our country no amount of money needed to finance their children's education is too high.

We have come a long way achieving all the quantitative glories in education. It is time that we began concentrating on improving the quality of our education.

K: What is the short-cut for achieving that improvement?

S: There is no short-cut. Hard as it might be. we must do one thing first and most of all: we have to say once and for all goodbye to that "examination hell." And I'm happy to say that with wage differentials fast shrinking between college and high school grads. there are truly encouraging signs that we're approaching a day when that goodbye will become reality.

In so much of our system today the effort for passing the entrance exam is everything.

This must be fundamentally revamped. Instead our education must be geared to developing the ability to love others. listen to others and care for others.

The accent from now should be placed on education for developing a logical mind. creative expression and propensity not to compete but to cooperate with others.

This must be carefully and intensively reflected in school curriculum and textbook all the way from the elementaty school level. By the same token. we must begin by retraining our teachers to master the art of teaching more of the democratic values than Confucian virtues.

K: Could all that ever be done?

S: I'm not at all pessimistic about our future prospects. Our students are inherently gifted.

In the International Comparative Study in Science and Mathematics. our elementary school children always come out on top. Our education's share of the government budget pie is the largest-or the second largest after the defense expenditure. In addition. parents in this country are a great. albeit latent. source for funds needed to expand future investments in education.

And what else do you need? Only one thing: a brave new philosophy on education for Korea.@

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Review/Music

KOREA ALSO PAYS

HOMAGE TO MOZART Han

Sang~woo

he answer to the question "why does one need music?" would probably be different for each and every person. However. if one were to ask the same question to musicians and artists of any one country and they were not able to answer with any definite ideas. this could be seen as a problem. Performing on stage of course is a means of communicating music to the audience. but before performing the musician should first take a look at the purpose of music.

Truthfully speaking, even with the numerous concerts held each year in Korea. one can question its value culturally in our society and what kind of an influence it has had on the general public. There is no answer. There is a pressing need for change with the lack of enthusiasm of concertgoers and quality music which can be performed. The ultimate responsibility lies with the musician; however one can not overlook the responsibility of the music appreciator as well who is mutually involved in determining what is played and by whom. The lack of concern by both parties has become a hindrance to the development of our music community.

Keeping this in mind. we only gladly welcome the expanding movement for performances by chamber music groups in their bid to aid in the development of music in Korea. We give special note to the Korea Festival Ensemble which has greatly contributed to this movement with memorable performances of Brahms' works from March 18 to the 23rd. With the lack of enthusiasm for classical music and the stagnating atmosphere of our music circles. listening to Brahms was like a breath of fresh air giving us some consolation and a new appreciation for music.

Pianist Park Eun-hee is the leader of the Korea Festival Ensemble. which has fumi~hed its own concert hall in which the essence of chamber music by composers such as Schubert and Mendelssohn can be heard.

This particular series of Brahm's works included 12 members of the Festival Ensemble and 15 guest artists. Despite the fact that a few pieces were not completely up to par. the overall effect was a real treat for the audience in which pieces which previously could only be heard through records were now being performed live on stage.

The first day was devoted to an introduction to a selection of Brahm's vocal arias performed

T

Born in 1938. Han Sang-woo studied at the College of Music. Seoul National University. From 1969 to he taught at Kyonggi Middle School and served as a member of the Broadcasting Commission at Munhwa Broadcasting Co. He currently serves as director of music at Seoul High School of Arts and Music. and director of the Korean Music Association. He is a member of the Korea Public Performance t.thics Committee.

I 984.

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Korea Festival Ensemble ¡ giving an outdoor concert.

by artists such as Kim Kwan-dong. Sok Kum-suk. Choi Sung-tae and Kim Shin-ja, while on the second day pieces were performed by a sextet. quintet. quartet and a trio. Especially pleasing were the German arias performed on the first day, the clarinet quintet on the third day, the horn trio on the fourth day, the string sextet on the fifth day as well as the clarinet sonata and String Quartet No.2. I would like to applaud all performers who. despite obstacles and difficulties. did their utmost in this event The chamber orchestra. in its own right. is a complete ensemble and plays an important part in classical music. In this respect. I commend the work of Park Eun-hee and the members of the Korea Festival Ensemble for their efforts with one word of caution. and that is each and every member of an ensemble must do his best. for a less conscientious member diminishes the chances for a potentially superb performance.

Of great interest this year of course are the series of musical events in observance of the bicentenary year of WA Mozart's death. Of particular interest is the performance of the complete series of Mozart's piano concertos performed on February 27 . The first performance. led by pianist Shin Su-jong, professor of Kyongwon University. was followed by Korean pianists such as Yi Tae-wuk. Kim Yon-ho. Mun Yong-hi and Yi Kyong-suk as well as by performers presently based abroad. Under the baton of Yim Hon-jong. the Puchon City Philharmonic Orchestra will continue to give performances of Mozart's piano concertos until November.

These truly talented pianists surely enlighten audiences to the works of Mozart with each and every performance.

The world this year has opened innumerable musical events in commemoration of Mozart's death and among those nations one cannot help but think that Korean performers have done their part to enhance Mozart's name.

Granted our music community still carries numerous obstacles and problems; however it is a fact that because Korea's musicians endeavor continuously to provide quality performances.

Korea holds a bright future as a place for fine musicianship. @

(This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

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Review/Dance

THEATRICAL DANCE RAPIDLY IMPROVING Kim ChaE7hyun

heatrical dance and its form are a relatively new field in Korea. making it a major topic of interest in the dance community. The theatre has always been a source of inspiration and has ultimately been the place where dancers could perform. As a result. the concept of dance in Korea is presently thought of as theatrical dance. performed basically within the confines of the theatre and little has been done for its development outside the theatre.

The last few years have seen a great increase in the number of dance performances ena. bling anyone and everyone to attend. indicating that theatrical dance has come to be recognized as an artistic genre.

Generally speaking. theatrical dance required the accommodations of an exclusive theatre.

However. these accommodations were not so readily available before the mid-70s. at which time theatres such as the Sejong Cultural Center. National Theatre .of Korea and Munye Theatre were being completed. Interest in theatrical dance did not evolve until the late 70s. And it was not until the mid-80s that theatrical dance was recognized as a mode of dance. One can conclude then that its history within the modern context has only just begun.

In the mid-80s. a series of dance performances were presented at small theatres. although no concrete steps in the development of theatrical dance had as yet been taken. Despite the growing number of performances in the last few years. there is much work to be done in terms of quality and creativity. However. the large quantity of works performed in the past have enabled dancers to reflect upon and analyze their strong and more importantly weak areas.

Dance performed in the mechanism of the theatre involves not only body movements but . also requires a balance of other media such as lighting and stage equipment. These essential elements which are an intricate part of theatrical dance have unfortunately been neglected.

'Movement.' the fundamental medium of dance and its development. has been hindered in part due to an overeagerness to accept foreign materials. resulting in less than perfect performances and application of foreign dance movements.

Granted that this does not apply to everyone in the Korean community, performances in general - due to a lack of understanding of the principles of theatrical dance - are in want of analytical and aesthetic substance.

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Born in 1954. Kim Chae-hyun graduated from the Department of Philosophy. Seoul National University. and obtained a master's degree in aesthetics at SNU graduate school. Since I 986. Kim has been teaching aesthetics of dance at Seo Won University. while being active as a dance critic. The author of Dance and Our Life. published in 1989. Kim has also produced several discourses including Research on the Nature of Aesthetic Experience.

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Kim Sam-jin.

Up until this time. strong emphasis has been placed on the choreographical aspect of dance and not on production. Despite the fact that a few dance producers have arrived on the scene in the last few years. producers and production development have made notable strides only in drama. Out of the few dance producers. only a handful are worth mentioning.

This spring offered a series of dance productions which featured works inspiring and encouraging us to believe that quality works are in the making. This can especially be seen in the works of the younger generation which has kindled a light of hope for the once dim future of theatrical dance.

Theresa Choi's work We Who Open And Close And Tear. (Munye Theatre. April) convincingly portrays the human dilemma in modern society by incorporating techniques of modern dance interspersed with movements akin to martial art. More impressive than the movements themselves is the spatial arrangement seen at the beginning of the work in which it is as if the collage method used in art has been applied to dance. Each dancer wearing what resembles everyday attire is found sitting or standing juxtaposed to each other. showing no concern or interest for the other. symbolizing the aliena.tion felt by man in modern society today.

Also worth mentioning is the work Picture of Ten Oxen by freelance dancer Kim Sam-jin. It is the story of a family of three people including a blind bastard. his hunchbacked wife. their child and the abuse and scorn they encounter from the village people. This work is an attempt to show us the antithesis of human nature; the good and the bad based on Buddhist philosophy.

This hour-long work is divided into three acts. Dramatic body gestures relay to us an account of the bastard and his family's life and the ordeals they encounter. The second act incorporates collective movements set to a traditional Korean ballad, portraying the landowner and village people's contempt for the hunchbacked wife and plunder set upon her. The third act consists of movements by the pitiful hunchback trying to appease her anger.

This carefully thought-out work is not in a hurry with superfluous and superficial movements to try and impress the audience. Instead, one sees the suggestions of a reinforcement of es-

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Picture of Ten Oxen.

sential elements in dance. slowly but surely making their way to the surface. There is no evidence of compositional tactics which are ambiguous and difficult to. understand.

Special note should be given to the third act. Here the dance of the hunchback is in the form of a traditional Korean solo dance salpuri. which superbly symbolizes the heart of the human being trying to appease itself. In this act. the essence of Kim Sang-jin's solo dance is truly captured with the special effect of sandlike powder which streams from above towards the stage.

This spring has produced a good show of works. Special attention should be brought to the troupe "Pullim" that can be placed in a category of by itself. Its works have mainly dealt with themes including problems in society and the labour movement.

Their work Labourer. Goliath. Crane (Sogang University Auditorium. May). conveys a realistic as well as different angle of the labour movement through subtle dance movements. revealing the human side of the labourer.

The professional know-how and knowledge accumulated by this progressive troupe in the last few years is clearly evident in this work with a pluralistic division of space. outpouring of emotion. lighting and slide effects and the music of Pachelbel's Canon and songs often sung by labourers. If any constructive criticism is to be made. the movements expressing the emotion and will of the labourer were not expressed as fully as they could have been and a distinct connection between the dance movements was perhaps a little weak. The dance troupe from Chongju city performed a similar work. Cry of the Bull. in February. The story is based on the current Uruguay Round multilateral talks depicting the plight of the Korean farmer. Dance as an art form is brought alive in this work.

Excluding those few works which did nothing to contribute to the advancement of theatrical dance. this spring was an opportunity for us to view productive. diverse quality works.

Changmuhoi's tour performance in the Soviet Union. though, proved to be disappointing, indicating there is still room for development and improvement before Korean dance troupes can gain acceptance worldwide.

In conclusion. let me say that the job of revamping Korean dance and the future of Korean dance lies in the hands of the younger generation. @ (This article was originally written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

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Review/Cinema

POKFRAIT OF YOUNG DAYS Cops Top Grand Bell Prix Lee Seung-ku

he 29th Grand Bell Award. the nation's largest film festivaL was held amid pomp and splendor on the evening of March 12 at the Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul with top honors for best film and best film direction going to director Kwak Chi-kyun's Portrait

T

of Young Days.

In addition, the film also swept seven other honors. including best cinematography, best lighting. best music, best sound recording, best special performance. and best supporting actress. and was judged the best cinema work screened in 1990 and the first part of 199 1.

Portrait of Young Days, was adapted from the autobiographical novel of the same title written by celebrated author Yi Mun-yol. Regarding the reality of Korean filmdom today, it is no exaggeration to say that the absolute lack of original scenarios has led to a dependency on film adaptations of popularly-acclaimed literary works. and thereby accounts for the resultant lack of scenario prizes.

The abstract expressionism of literary works leaves much to the reader's imagination. The film adaptation offers it in concrete reality on the screen for the eyes of the audience to behold. As viewers always have a desire to see the product of their imagination. brought to life on the screen. films and literature. in spite of the fact they may differ in character artistically, have thereby maintained an inseparable relationship up to now.

However. the adaptation should not simply be a meaningless dramatization of the imaginative world of the novel. It should instead add to it through re-interpretation in terms of the film world the director pursues while at the same time maintaining the theme that the novelist pursues.

Director Kwak Chi-Kyun made every effort to approach the world of the novel. But the film creates many problems by irrationally depicting the novel's background of the 1960s in a setting as recent as that of the late ¡80s.

Though the change of period should also be accompanied by an appropriate change in the thoughts and behavioral attitude of the novel's hero. it is natural to assume that by merely attempting to change the background. a blank of some 30 years is created.

Yi Mun-yol attended college and devoted himself to the study of literature in the 1960s. so that the period the novel implies is based on the setting of that particular place in time.

But this background is suddenly changed into that of the end of the 1980s when the novel

Lee Seung-ku is professor of cinema at Chung-ang University. He has been extensively writing about cinema in various publications in Seoul. Currently a member of the Korean Film Academy, he received his M.A. from Columbia University in 1980.

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was adapted for filming.

The troubles and wandering, the purest and most human agony. which Yi Mun-yol depicts in the memory of his younger days is suddenly substituted by the present situation in which tear gas is rampant and young men are troubled by ideological issues.

The young days of Yi Mun-yol. when he devoted himself purely to literature. are absolutely his own. and nobody has the qualification or authority to change its meaning. In this regard. the film makes a great mistake in attempting to change the meaning of the novelist's past.

Thus. by entangling the troubles and wanderings of a young man of the '60s with the situation at the end of the '80s. when great confusion and disorder prevailed. this film is reduced to one whose contents are questionably and ambiguously abnormal. and which fails to concretely represent anything in one way or another.

However. the film more than makes up for this basic flaw by being blessed with excellent direction by Kwak Chi-kyun. superbly beautiful screening by cinematography director Chung 11-sung. and an ardent performance by the cast. who give their very best throughout.

The film very well conveys the sense of a young man's ruminating on the theory and meanings of life. a necessary course in the mental development and experience of youth. the pains generated from the foolish yearning of a vague. obscure love for the opposite sex. and the aspect of trouble, agony, and wandering in trying to understand the true substance of nihilism.

The film unfolds a series of episodes which the hero Young-hoon (played by Chung Bo-suk) encounters in his young days; that is. the wandering he experiences in his college days, the recollection of his first love. a hometown girl older than he. and the resultant troubles caused by the restraints of tradition and custom dictated by an antiquated but still-lingering. nondestructible Confucian-oriented society. There follows a long journey of penance to straighten out the resultant mess of troubles and wandering. and yet another wandering generated from the compassionate love of a degraded barmaid, Miss Yun. who prostitutes herself into a mere plaything for men.

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The scene in which Young-hoon leaves and Miss Yun (played by Bae Jong-ok) follows him after giving up her life as a barmaid. their subsequent meeting with an unknown knife-grinder. after which all of them wander about a mountain road together. is both charming and interesting in its own way. Yet. at the same time. it is somewhat disappointing in that it gives one the feeling that he is seeing a replay of a scene from director Yi Man-hee's Road to Sampo. or director Bae Chang-ho's Whale Hunting.

One is also left with a somewhat unsatisfactory and uneasy feeling by the blatantly intentional message of giving oneself over to a life of self-sacrifice and devotion as depicted in the concluding scene where Miss Yun decides to stay at a burned-out church in the mountains to take care of orphans who dwell there. and where the vagabond knife-grinder gives a tedious. irritable. and seemingly-interminable one-sided sermon on life to Young-hoon at a spot along the seashore that is the equivalent in quality to a second-rate melodrama.

What the film offers thereby is an overly straightforward and routinely conventional conclusion tailored to audiences who look forward to such an ending so that they can go away with a feeling of deep emotion full of lingering aftereffects in a quiet. inward. intimate. and serene atmosphere.

Throughout the film. Chung Bo-suk. who plays the hero Young-hoon. makes every effort to enrich the performance and assimilate his serene and dignified role quite satisfactorily so that he is indeed worthy of the praise he has received. In view of the fact that Korean filmdom is so sorely lacking in good-quality actors. it is a most happy event that such a diligent player has made his appearance on the cinematic scene.

The performance of Bae )ong-ok as Miss Yun. the barmaid. is both natural and fresh at the same time. Noted for her roles as a pure and lively girl. this performance takes the actress beyond the limits of her usual performance and expands the dimension of her capabilities by changing her self-image into that of a mature woman of marked individuality. The sincerity and diligence that she brings to this performance also is deserving of high praise.

It is a well-known fact that the cinematography of Chw1g 11-sung always lies in the forefront of any production, This film. being no exception. likewise can take pride in the beauty of the four seasons that Chung gorgeously re-creates on the screen. His particular craftsmanship lies in the fact that he shoots the film with a special synthesized cinematography technique. Quite apart from the accompanying scenario." his magnificent cinematography. representing the ultimate in aesthetic beauty. always proves to be a source of delight for audiences to behold.

The¡value of this film should be studied further from a comparative standpoint in exqmining the differences between the complete approach to the original novel on the one hand and the director's re-interpretation of it on the other. Likewise. Kwak Chi-kyun. though he has his own convictions as a director. should devote himself further to cinematic research for his own self-improvement in the future. @

(The original text of this article was written in Korean and contributed for exclusive use by KOREANA. This is a translation.)

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Review!rheater

CULTURE MINISTRY FETES THEATER & CINEMA YEAR Proclaimed by Government Han

Sang~chul

n 1990. the Ministry of Culture was established for the first time in Korea. and Lee 0-young. a scholar. critic and author. was appointed to head it. In a cultural policy unprecedented not only in Korea but also throughout the world. the minister proClaimed I 991 the · 'Year of Theatre and Cinema."

The proclamation of the· 'Year of Theatre and Cinema" is an expression of the government's intention to designate a year to a special field in order to concentrate its efforts and support on the long-term and short-term development of that field for a whole year. which is also unprecedented in the world. The government's aim in proclaiming the · 'Year of Theatre and Cinema" is to induce an epochal turning point in theatre and cinemp. the two fields of art which. despite being the most closely related to the spiritual and cultural life of the public and having a very great influence over all aspects of culture and the arts in general. have by and large been excluded from the government's cultural policies.

All Korean dramatists approved of the government's new efforts for the development of culture and the arts and set up planning committees to establish projects for the · 'Year of Theatre and Cinema." The committees presented their plans to the Ministry of Culture and all of them were approved. The Ministry instructed that all of the projects be undertaken wholly and autonomously by the dramatists themselves and allotted them a budget of I. 5 billion won (approximately US$2 million). This amounts to three times the average annual government support for the dramatic arts in the past. .

Eighteen ·'Year of Theatre and Cinema" projects are to be undertaken this year. A festival to celebrate the establishment of the projects was held with the attendance of persons working in the art and cultural communities. government officials. political figures. financiers and other interested persons on March 27. which was designated "World Theatre Day" by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It was followed by two plays to mark the opening of the ·'Year of Theatre and Cinema." Other major projects included the One-act Play Festival in April. the Love's Theatre Festival with 41 plays performed throughout Seoul in May and june. the Puppet Theatre Festival in May. the National Theatre Festival in june. the National Small-theatre

I

Han Sang-chul. a well-known drama critic who was born in 1936 and who graduated from the English Department of Yonsei University Graduate School. presently is a professor of English at Hallim University . He has co-authored such works as Understanding Modern Drama and A Collection of Works by Korean Dramatists of Today.

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Festival in August the University Theatre Competition in August the Seoul Theatre Festival and the Asian Pacific Region Theatre Festival in September and October.

It is difficult for theatre to sustain itself financially in any country. In the wake of the development of leisure industries. extreme development and spread of electronic media such as TV and VCR. theatre. which once occupied the throne ?f cultural entertainment has lost its power to draw large audiences to playhouses.

Theatrical performances. the production of which is not mechanized but is dependent on talent and physical labor. is basically not adaptable to the modern capitalistic structure of mass production and consumption and does not have the means to foot the exorbitant production costs required of non-mechanized production techniques.

Since the I 980s. the number of Korean theatergoers has been declining. The number of professional dramatists has also been declining because dramatists and other related workers are switching to broadcasting media and other professions. With no financial support from the government or from the public. Korean dramatists cannot dream of making a daring production because of a lack of funds. And because of production costs pressures. they can only 路 make cheap. low-quality dramas which in turn drives audiences out of the theatres. thus repeating the vicious circle. For this reason. theater is declining every day in Korea while other industries are progressing and the economy is growing. It is also a fact that Korean drama has become increasingly static and enervated. It is thus a highly encouraging development that the government has decided to provide administrative and financial support for a drama revival which has boosted the morale of the whole drama community.

However. the dramatic arts cannot progress simply because of improvements in outside factors like governmental. financial and administrative support. That is because the artists themselves lack the dedication and artistic spirit it takes to perfect a dramatic piece and turn it into a highly accomplished work of art. Moreover. because of a general lack of theatre techniques. such as performing skills and staging skills that can captivate audiences. drama has not had much success.

Without a fundamental improvement of these inner conditions. it is difficult to expect a bright future for Korean drama. It is believed that Korean drama. which is now in the midst of the 路'Year of Theatre and Cinema." should undergo a basic revolutionary process for the efflorescence of drama culture by establishing long-term plans to upgrade the quality of drama and to secure large appreciative audiences.

Two performances were staged to commemorate the proclamation of the 路 'Year of }'heatre and Cinema" and its opening. They were Yu Chi-jin's Chun-hyang Story and Beaumarchais' The

Marriage of Figaro.

Yu Chi-jin. who spearheaded the modernization of Korean theatre. is the Godfather of Korean drama. He started out as a playwright who dramatized representative Korean classics. It is only natural that his Chun-hyang Story was chosen to commemorate the opening of the 路'Year of Theatre and Cinema."

The story of Chun-hyang is a classic loved by Koreans in the way Shakespeare's Hamlet is loved by the British. It has been performed innumerable times not only as a drama but also as a movie and a television show. It is a melodrama with a happy ending that deals with the love and sorrow of a woman named Chun-hyang and a man named Yi Mong-nyong. It allows many kinds of interpretations.

This particular performance of the classic highlights the chastity and virtues of women. Underlying the performance is a warning about the licentiousness of modern Korean women and

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Poster for the Year of Theater & Cinema.

their unrestrained self-indulgence.

From the beginning. Director Chung 11-sung had no intention of following the original drama.

He was strongly conscious of modern audiences in the style in which he unfolded the story.

Unlike most past performances. he eliminated most of the details except for the main story line and timed the highlight to the last night when Chun-hyang is waiting in jail for her execution and Yi Mong-nyong appears on stage.

He emphasizes the moral beauty of Chun-hyang who was not disappointed by the ragged appearance of Yi Mong-nyong who appears to have failed and shows him the same devotion and care she did before.

As soon as the curtain goes up. the audience can tell this is no classic drama because all the actors and actresses are on stage disco dancing in modern attire. Then the scene changes to unfold the Chun-hyanq Story in a kind of drama within a drama. When the drama is over. the stage returns to the first scene.

Is this kind of dissection of a classic permissible? Of course it would probably irk conservatives who respect the classics. But then. because the story of Chun-hyang is so wei! known to all Koreans. the elimination of any part of the story does not pose any real problem. However. this particular production could be the object of controversy because the style is very far removed from the classic.

Some might regard it as the rape of a classic. Still. the director began with the intention of making an experimental work. And in the drama within a drama it follows the lines of the original quite faithfully, only adding modem touches in the performances of the actors. Nonetheless. it is to the regret of the audiences who are well acquainted with this work that this performance has disregarded the rich. entertaining elements and spectacles the original has.

Chun-hyang and Yi Mong-nyong were played by two new performers whose performances. considering their acting experience. were fresh. lively and impressive. Especially notable was Song Chae-whan who played the title role.

(This article was originally written in Korean and wntributed for mlusive use by KOREAN A. This is a translation.)

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112

Vol. 5 No. 2 KOREANA 1991

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