Students can get education in two ways: public education, which is mandatory for everyone, and private education, which is optional for everyone to support public education. These two education means should be harmonious and be mutually supplement to each other. However, currently in Korea these two forces are in stiff competition, trying to suppress the other like Hamlet and Laertes who were eventually bound to dual to the death. However, they are actually deviating from their own roles. The problem raised from this issue is getting severer. What is all about these two influential forces and what could Korea have done to mend this problem?
Public education is the education that is under control of the government or a local autonomous entity in the purpose of cultivating men of appropriate citizens. “It is mandated for the children of the general public by the government, whether national, regional, or local, provided by an institution of civil government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by taxes. The term is generally applied to basic education, K -12 education, or primary and secondary education: it is rarely, if ever, applied to post-secondary education, advanced education, or universities, colleges, or technical schools.”(Encyclopidia)
Problem raised from public education is that its influence on students is rapidly dimishing and education itself is actually distorting. The major reason for this consequence is that private education force is exceedingly dominate the public education, then students begin to put their priority in private education, which is totally up-sided-down. Students perspectives on public educatoin will never change until private education returns to the original states-purpose.
Unlike public education, private education is run and maintained by a corporation or a private association. “Private education is supposed to be supplementory for public education.” (Lee) However, its forces is dramatically expanding and is yielding its power. “Total expense spent in private education of elementary, middle, and high schoolers exceeded 13 trillion and 600 million won, which has increased by 3 trillion from last year” (Baek). This amount is more than half of the total education budget of Korea! Private education has been a controversial issue in Korea: whether this overly intensive private education is necessary for students or not. The amount of money spent in private education is constantly increasing every year like a plant growing.
Private education can definitely be efficient when it is properly utilized. However, Korean private education is seriously deteriorated, exceeding the limited line – the line that private education and public education make harmony. Most of private academies teach students way ahead of public schools do. Having all those materials covered, students chat with their mates, not listen to schoolteachers during the class. They even do academy homework during the class! How could this happen? Students employ academies to SUPPORT schoolwork. But the relations seem to be reversed. Students are apt to think that private education is the primary education for them.
There are two chief bases for imbalance between private education and public education. Currently private education of Korea is fatally dominating public education of Korea. This complicated predicament can be patched up by analyzing the main causes of these consequences.
The first one is the wrong perspective on education. As I mentioned above, the ultimate goal of public education is to cultivate men of appropriate citizens. However, the majority thinks that the eventual purpose to get education is to enter top universities. A study done by the Education Association of Korea (EAK) showed that when one thousand students are asked what they study for, and over 70% of students answered “I want to enter the Ivy league, or Seoul, Korea, and Yeon-Sae University (SKY) ” (Baek). Students and parents think that the day they enter colleges is the end of the world, and a luxurious life is guaranteed only if they enter the top, even though these thoughts are definitely not always true. This wrong concept has led to more demand of private education. Students think public education is not enough and seek more education. Thus, erroneous university entrance system is to blame for Korean’s misconception on ‘real education’.
To mend this problem, we should know that entering top universities is not the end of the life. There are numerous people who have succeeded life who did not enter excellent colleges. For example, Robert Kiyosaki, author of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, became a millionaire after making world-first nylon-wallet. The important fact is that Robert didn’t even finish high school! This person vividly shows that entering good colleges are not the only way to be successful in one’s life.
The second reason for the imbalance is corruption of public education. Basis of public should be mended first of all. “Schoolteachers are too self-conceited.” (Jo) It is obvious that a schoolteacher is a life-long job. This system made schoolteachers too easygoing on students. This has led students to less keen on learning. I have experienced some of those kinds. One of my middle school teachers was the most unenthusiastic person I have ever seen. He didn’t do anything but giving long and boring lectures everyday. He never gave students any homework, and when students asked questions, most of the time he says “I’m a little bit late, come later”. I have asked him questions more than 20 times, but he answered less than twice. On the other hand, teachers of private academy are not a life-long job. If a teacher is considered insufficient, then he or she will be fired right away. This is why academies always have passionate and strict teachers and students tend to go to academies. “To deal with, teacher assessment is the most appropriate policy. Schools should give students and parents opportunities to assess teachers, and teachers themselves assess each other.” (Han) This way, teachers can have chance to rectify others’ flaws and have lectures of superior quality for students. It is critical not to give opportunity of becoming schoolteachers to everyone who gets teacher’s license, for the sake of ‘better public education’.
Fragile and feeble public education and misconception that most of people have on ‘real education’ will make impossible forming the balance between public education and private education. “Having one force completely dominate the other will cause brutal crisis to education system.” (Kim) This issue has been very controversial and many innovative solutions other than those I have mentioned have proposed but government couldn’t accept such revolutionary suggestions and thus left the issue until now. There is no way to mend Korean education system unless Korean government actually takes action.
Work Cited
l Baek, Min-Jun “Pros and Cons of Private academies” 20 September 2006