Education in Korea: colonial period, South, and North

- Japanese educational system of late Meiji days:

*compulsory 6-years elementary schools (all citizenry)

*5-years academic middle schools/lower technical schools

*3-years academic higher schools/higher technical schools

*3/4-years universities (elite leadership)

Thorough “two-track” system, strongly following the patterns of social inequality.

- Pre-colonial Korean education: traditional (sŏdang-hyanggyo-Sŏnggyun’gwan University) and modern (missionary and state modern schools, private schools – more or less following contemporary Western gradations and practices).

- Colonial authorities: 1910^th - screening of private schools (more than half of 2000 pre-colonial schools are forcibly closed). Thorough control over both missionary and traditional Confucian schools after the takeover (1918 – “Regulations for sŏdang education” are issued: “Ideologically unreliable individuals” are prohibited from teaching in Confucian schools; 1929 – sŏdang are to teach loyalty to Japanese emperor and to use Japanese textbooks). Aim of the education is formulated as “nurturing of the virtues of a subject of the Empire, and spread of the state [Japanese] language”. Hated prohibition on teaching religion in the schools – until 1919. Governmental schools: ordinary (futsu) school (primary education – 4 years in Korea – compared with 6 years for more privileged Japanese, some amount of Korean language before 1930th). Still, in 1918 – enrollment in sŏdang (1,150 thousands) stands much higher than that of ordinary schools (c. 90 thousands). Secondary ordinary school (kōtō futsu gakkō – 5 years in Korea) – already teaching-training institutions.

1920^th – Korean Education Rescript (first issued in 1911, then revised in 1922): one educational system for both Koreans and Japanese, both to get 6 years of primary education (in fact, Korean quota is informally, but carefully and consistently set up). Ordinary school – now 6 years (just like in Japan proper). “Curriculum concessions” – Korean history. Aim – “a school in every district”. Real objective – indoctrination and primary stage of assimilation. Korean newspapers, even moderate “culturalist” Tonga ilbo – recognized the real intentions of the colonial government correctly and openly criticized the “Rescript…”. Ordinary school enrollment – around 20% in late 1920^th , around 70% among urban Korean males (already almost 100% in Japan proper). To be enrolled, a child had to produce “Certificate of Family Property Ownership” concerning his/her parents’ ability to pay the tuition fee: the most poor were officially banned from education in this way. Annual tuition fee for primary school – Yen 20-30 – but a farmer’s annual income rarely exceeded Yen 30 in Korea in the 1920s. Education of the 1920s – for the colonial elite and “middle class”, as well as some relatively better-off groups among the exploited (skilled workers, etc.).

1930^th – 1940^th – sŏdang still retains very high enrollment (about 1,200 thousands in 1942). Rise of specialized colleges (senmon gakkō) - 20 (1942), and Keijō Imperial University (1926). Still, those institutions were more reserved for the Japanese. Ordinary school enrollment – about 50% in 1940. Indoctrination-based primary education – begins to penetrate into Korean masses in the 1930s. Fascist trends in the education in late 1930^th (“Oath of Allegiance” to the Japanese Emperor – recited daily during the militarized roll-calls, etc.).

On the overall – colonial education as indoctrination instrument, and as a method of assimilating wealthier Koreans into colonial structure (poorer could not send their sons even to the primary school, at least before the 1930s), thus dividing the colonized and co-opting the upper stratum into the colonial system. Failure of the Japanese – education remained strongly associated with nationalist intentions and thoughts, schools remained the cradles of the dissent. Persistence of old values – through ever-popular sŏdang system.

Old Korean sŏdang in Manchuria – 1905.

Female students of a missionary school in Taegu. Colonial period.

- post-colonial South Korea.

· When United States military forces occupied the southern half of the Korean Peninsula in 1945, they established a school system based on the American model: six years of primary school, six years of secondary school (divided into junior and senior levels), and four years of higher education. Other occupation period reforms included coeducation at all levels, popularly elected school boards in local areas, and compulsory education up to the ninth grade.

· The government of Syngman Rhee reversed many of these reforms after 1948, when only primary schools remained in most cases coeducational and, because of a lack of resources, education was compulsory only up to the sixth grade. Under Rhee, the education was underfinanced – even in the obligatory primary schools, 70% of the expenses was covered by the parents. Militarization of education followed colonial patterns – for all students beginning from the secondary school level, military training was obligatory. “Hakto hoguktan” (“Student Corps for Defense of the State”) – nicknamed “Korean Hitlerjugend” by more critical contemporaries (disbanded after Rhee was toppled, and substituted by student councils). Number of students in the primary schools under Rhee grew 2,6 times, and number of the university students – 12 times (universities gave temporary deferment from the military service). But – high unemployment rate even for the university graduates, very weak level of the education.

· - During the years when Park Chung Hee and his successors were in power, the control of education was gradually taken out of the hands of local school boards and concentrated in a centralized Ministry of Education. Local educational inspectors (kyoyukkam) were appointed by presidential decrees. Even in the late 1980s, the ministry was responsible for administration of schools, allocation of resources, setting of enrollment quotas, certification of schools and teachers, curriculum development (including the issuance of textbook guidelines), and other basic policy decisions. Provincial and special city boards of education still existed. Although each board was composed of seven members who were supposed to be selected by popularly elected legislative bodies, this arrangement ceased to function after 1973. Subsequently, the minister of education approved school board members. Now – elected by school councils.

- Teachers’ unions – were actively organized during the brief democratic interlude of the 1960-61 (after Rhee was toppled and before Park came to power) – and completely outlawed under Park. The right of the school teachers to unionize was recognized only under Kim Dae Jung, after prolonged (almost 10 years) struggle by the activists (many of whom were fired and even arrested in the process).

- 1973 – the dictatorial state monopolizes the right to compile and publish “National History” textbooks. State-compiled history textbooks – based on militaristic nationalism and visceral anti-Communism. Main story – “fight of our nation against foreign invaders” and cult of “national leaders”. From 1971 onward – all schools were re-militarized, military education being stressed equally with “national history” and “national ethics”.

- Strong pattern of the bureaucratic supervision of the education (especially curriculums and textbooks) – does not differ much with the Meiji models. Indoctrination role of the schools – the “Charter of National Education” – guiding principle of official nationalism, to be memorized by everybody. “Patriotic roll-calls”, corporal punishments and “hygienic checks” – aimed in internalizing of the authoritarian patterns.

· Most observers agree that South Korea's spectacular progress in modernization and economic growth since the Korean War is largely attributable to the willingness of individuals to invest a large amount of resources in education: the improvement of "human capital." The traditional esteem for the educated man, originally confined to the Confucian scholar as a cultured generalists, now extend to scientists, technicians, and others working with specialized knowledge. Highly educated technocrats and economic planners could claim much of the credit for their country's economic successes since the 1960s. South Koreans generally regarded scientific professions as the most prestigious in the 1980s.

· Statistics demonstrate the success of South Korea's national education programs. In 1945 the adult literacy rate was estimated at 22 percent; by 1970 adult literacy was 87.6 percent, and by the late 1980s various sources estimated it at around 93 percent. South Korean students have performed exceedingly well in international competitions in mathematics and science. Although only primary school (grades one through six) was compulsory, percentages of age-groups of children and young people enrolled in primary, secondary, and tertiary level schools were equivalent to those found in industrialized countries, including Japan. Approximately 4.8 million students in the eligible age group were attending primary school in 1985. The percentage of students going on to optional middle school the same year was more than 99 percent. Approximately 34 percent, one of the world's highest rates of high school graduates (after 12 years of school education) attended institutions of higher education (universities/special colleges) in 1987, a rate similar to Japan's (about 30 percent) and exceeding Britain's (20 percent). General pattern of unconditional respect to the education and the educated (and, of course, the educators). If we can speak about “the East Asian model” based on common tradition, this is its crucial part.

· Government expenditure on education has been generous after the economical successes of the 1970s – in comparison with many other developing countries. In 1975 it was W220 billion, the equivalent of 2.2 percent of the gross national product, or 13.9 percent of total government expenditure. By 1986 education expenditure had reached won 3.76 trillion, or 4.5 percent of the GNP, and 27.3 percent of government budget allocations. Still, most private universities (80% of all Korean universities – private) are basically self-supporting, and have to charge quite expensive tuition fees; it makes education hard or even impossible to obtain for the peoples on the lower rungs of the social ladder, thus perpetuating the patterns of social inequality (while creating the illusion of the “equal opportunities”). Respect for education and the educated is matched only with seemingly endless disdain for the uneducated – the weakest point of No Muhyŏn, a relatively moderate presidential candidate for 2002 elections from the Democratic Party (affiliated with Kim Dae Jung), being the fact that he, a child from a poor family, did not attend a university (he managed to pass state-run exams for judiciary by self-study and become an advocate). Discrimination against the less educated offspring of poorer families – one of the central patterns of class conflict in S.Korea. Possession of a college degree is considered necessary for entering the middle class; there are no alternative pathways of social advancement, with the possible exception of a military career or venture enterprise, outside higher education. People without a college education, including skilled workers with vocational school backgrounds, often are treated as second-class citizens by their white-collar, college-educated managers (education-based class system), despite the importance of their skills for economic development. Intense competition for places at the most prestigious universities--the sole gateway into elite circles (detailed social hierarchy based on the academic credentials – other feature of the Meiji model)--promoted, like the old Confucian system, a sterile emphasis on rote memorization in order to pass secondary school and college entrance examinations. Particularly after a dramatic expansion of college enrollments in the early 1980s, South Korea faced the problem of what to do about a large number of young people kept in school for a long time, usually at great sacrifice to themselves and their families, and then faced with limited job opportunities because their skills were not marketable.

Overall: the idea of “getting into the university to avoid becoming a laborer” still dominates the society. At the same time – universities as the “islands of dissidence” in militarized authoritarian society (other feature of Meiji pattern, but also continuation of older Confucian tradition of the student activism).

- post-colonial North Korea.

Compulsory primary education – 1956 (tuition in the primary schools abolished).

Compulsory secondary education – 1958 (tuition in the secondary schools abolished too) – almost one decade earlier than in South Korea. In sum, 11 years of compulsory education to all – big success for an impoverished post-war society. However, from the 1960s onward ideological indoctrination became a dominant element in the educational system. 1977 – “The Thesis on Socialist Education” made the education into a tool of “arming the people with chuch’e thought”.

In the early 1990s, the compulsory primary and secondary education system was divided into one year of kindergarten, four years of primary school (people's school) for ages six to nine, and six years of senior middle school (secondary school) for ages ten to fifteen). There are two years of kindergarten, for children aged four to six; only the second year (upper level kindergarten) is compulsory.

In the mid-1980s, there were 9,530 primary and secondary schools. After graduating from people's school, students enter either a regular secondary school or a special secondary school that concentrates on music, art, or foreign languages. These schools teach both their specialties and general subjects. The Mangyngdae Revolutionary Institute is an important special school.

In the early 1990s, graduation from the compulsory education system occurred at age sixteen. Eberstadt and Banister report that according to North Korean statistics released in the late 1980s, primary schools enrolled 1.49 million children in 1987; senior middle schools enrolled 2.66 million that same year. A comparison with the total number of children and youths in these age brackets shows that 96 percent of the age cohort is enrolled in the primary and secondary educational system.

School curricula in the early 1990s are balanced between academic and political subject matter. According to South Korean scholar Park Youngsoon, subjects such as Korean language, mathematics, physical education, drawing, and music constitute the bulk of instruction in people's schools; more than 8 percent of instruction is devoted to the "Great Kim Il Sung" and "Communist Mora1ity." In senior middle schools, politically oriented subjects, including the "Great Kim Il Sung" and "Communist Morality" as well as "Communist Party Policy," comprise only 5.8 percent of instruction. However, such statistics understate the political nature of primary and secondary education. Textbooks in the Korean language, for example, include titles such as We Pray for "Our Master," Following Mrs. Kim, Our Father, Love of Our Father, and Kim Jong Il Looking at Photos. Kindergarten children receive instruction in "Marshal Kim's Childhood" and "Communist Morality." Park noted that when students read Kim Il Sung's writings in the classroom, they are expected to do so "loudly, and slowly and with a feeling of respect." They also are taught a special way of speaking toward Kim, in terms of pronunciation, speed, and a special deference system and attitude."

Institutions of higher education in the early 1990s included colleges and universities; teachers' training colleges, with a four-year course for preparing kindergarten, primary, and secondary instructors; colleges of advanced technology with two or three-year courses; medical schools with six-year courses; special colleges for science and engineering, art, music, and foreign languages; and military colleges and academies. Kim Il Sung's report to the Sixth Party Congress of the KWP in October 1980 revealed that there were 170 "higher learning institutions" and 480 "higher specialized schools" that year. In 1987 there were 220,000 students attending two- or three-year higher specialized schools and 301,000 students attending four- to six-year colleges and university courses. According to Eberstadt and Banister, 13.7 percent of the population sixteen years of age or older was attending, or had graduated from, institutions of higher education in 1987-88. In 1988 the regime surpassed its target of producing "an army of 1.3 million intellectuals," graduates of higher education, a major step in the direction of achieving the often-stated goal of "intellectualization of the whole society."

Kim Il Sung University, founded in October 1946, is the country's only comprehensive institution of higher education offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. It is an elite institution whose enrollment of 16,000 full- and part-time students in the early 1990s occupies, in the words of one observer, the "pinnacle of the North Korean educational and social system." Competition for admission to its faculties is intense. According to a Korean-American scholar who visited the university in the early 1980s, only one student is admitted out of every five or six applicants. An important criterion for admission is senior middle school grades, although political criteria are also major factors in selection. A person wishing to gain acceptance to any institution of higher education has to be nominated by the local "college recommendation committee" before approval by county- and provincial-level committees.

Kim Il Sung University's colleges and faculties include economics, history, philosophy, law, foreign languages and literature, geography, physics, mathematics, chemistry, atomic energy, biology, and computer science. There are about 3,000 faculty members, including teaching and research staff. Among them there are around 1200 degree holders – the elite of the North Korean academia. All facilities are located on a modern, high-rise campus in the northern part of P'yongyang.