Not K-pop related: South Korea’s education system

There has been mini online buzz surrounding a documentary on high school life in South Korea, set to be released this month in August next year (sorry for misinforming — I think I read it wrong. Thanks to Tiffany for the correction!) Nineteen-year-old director Kelley Katzenmeyer (winner of the  2010 YoungArts Gold Award in Cinema), fueled by an intrigue in the country’s high demands in education, moved to South Korea and attended a high school there in order to film first-hand the stress-packed life of a typical female student, and not only in terms of academics. Check out the trailer of the film below (with a cute BIGBANG bonus in the end ;] you’ll see what I mean!)

The release of this film has been placed on my personal radar. It looks absolutely promising; and not only is it enlightening, the fact that this director has gone out of her way to expose such an issue to the rest of the world is very inspiring. For more information, go to the film’s website or their Facebook page. 

Needless to say, the trailer struck a chord with me. First of all, the damn education system, man. Sixteen hours per day?! If you subtract the number of hours needed for sleep (needed for sleep — meaning that the required average of 8 hours isn’t probably normally met), it leaves very little time for hobbies, let alone time to spend with family and friends. And according to the trailer, Korean high school students don’t have “meaningful” hobbies. Moreover, this mini-documentary (embedded below, right under the cut) I came across on YouTube states that high schools don’t offer extra-curricular activities; and for most, there’s no such thing as ‘sports for fun’. Instead, when people engage in sports, it usually means they’re gearing themselves up for serious careers in the Olympics or national teams. It seems like it’s either ‘do it, and go all the way’, or ‘don’t do it at all’.

Students would be in school for about 13 hours: 7AM to 8PM. And the day doesn’t end there — they’d go straight to after-school hagwons (or private institutions) to engage in additional studying for specific subjects, such as math or English. 

All this education and studying is to achieve one examination at the end of your high school career, meant to measure everything you’ve learned over the past 12 years. Now that’s crazy. Students would shed blood and tears during their senior year, because this is the test that determines what university you’re eligible to attend, or whether you’re eligible to even enter university. Those who fall short of their expectations usually spend another year gearing up for the next round of exams. And those who can’t handle the pressure, they tragically succumb to the worst option. 

I mean, I know South Korea’s system has been praised for instilling “the drive for success” and the “appetite for learning”. But there are implications for having, as BBC says, “too much of a good thing.” Children (especially at age 10) need to be doing other things besides studying. They need to be encouraged to explore and experiment around beyond the limitations their parents impose, for the sake of their creative development. On a side note, less than 8 hours of sleep for a child is not healthy. What’s the use of all the effort placed into studying when you lack the energy to concentrate?

Another point is the lack of emphasis on open questioning and creative learning. Instead, students are required to memorize material. In my eyes, after all the textbooks have been placed away; after all the exams have been passed, what ultimately comes out of your education isn’t much, I’m afraid. 

And there’s the unexpected aspect Katzenmeyer came across while documenting high school life: the pressure of beauty standards. I’ve written a post related to this in the past, but never has the reality of it struck harder than it did while I was watching the trailer. How on earth is it that the beautiful, vibrant young girls featured on this documentary not believe that they’re perfect the way they are? How is it that the ones around them cannot believe they’re perfect the way they are? It took less than 20 minutes for me to fall in love with them, and from miles away too… yet…

“Not once since I was born did my mother ever tell me I was beautiful.”

Why this is the world we live in nowadays is just completely beyond me. It isn’t right. 

(What are your thoughts on the South Korean education system?)