The Dark Side of Neoliberal Education in South Korea

By Anonymous / Fall 2020

My family immigrated to the U.S. right before my elementary school graduation. In South Korea, the standard education system follows 6 years in elementary school, 3 years in middle school, and 3 years in high school. Around the second week of November, junior high school students must take Korean SAT called ‘Suneung’ in order to apply to universities except those who get accepted by the university through early admission. The national exam only offers once a year, and that day, even planes are delayed during the English listening test time. Students must arrive the test venues before 8:10 a.m., so the public offices open later than usual to avoid any traffic congestions. In the article “Suneung: The day silence falls over South Korea” by Hossein Sharif (2018), he further explains “…Most construction work halts, planes are grounded and military training ceases… police motorbikes racing to deliver students running late to their exam.” This achievement test means different things to Korean students; they need to perform well regardless of their academic records who are trying to apply for regular admission, because it is the only factor to be considered when applying universities. The job opportunities in Korea are very limited especially those who are non-STEM majors and females. Moreover, part time jobs such as barista, convenient stores, or that does not require any educational background, the owners still ask people to write their educational level and which university they are currently attending. The atmosphere that creates the competitive environment in South Korea is mainly coming from academic factionalism which brings more competition over people. From there, this specific social problem creates the deepening of social polarization caused by the gap between rich and poor.

My family immigrated from South Korea in December 2009. At that time, I was very closed to the graduation in elementary school (elementary school students are graduating in 6th grade), and I was somewhat worried and excited that I was going to United States, which is a dream country for most people. In South Korea, Parents spend tens of million won for private education and tutor which then became an essential precondition and inevitable if students want to go to university, or even get into those specialized high school where they have the highest elite university acceptance rate. Growing up in a single parent family, my mom decided to immigrate to the United States to give us a better life especially for our education, a fair education that we can get into university after high school without the need of expensive private institution. In Korea, most students are dependent on private educational institutes, and their parents go there by 5 am to reserve the front seat for their children. My mom worked as medical laboratory technologist, insurance salesperson, and real estate agent in Korea to pay for our expensive academies for after-school lessons, where almost every student was attending. Besides those academies for math, science and English subjects, parents spend extra tuitions for piano, art, dance, and many other additional academies. I remembered that my sister and some of my friends were always coming home around 7-8 pm after finishing all the academies. I was more interested in art and piano rather than science and math, so I attended after-school programs and private educational institutes for those interests. However, it is extremely expensive to attend Art High school in Seoul, so my aunt tried to convince me to go to an academic high school. The reality of South Korea in terms of middle school, high school and university for art and music school is that only rich parents can afford to pay the tuition, or the working-class people are in debt to pay for it.

Neoliberalism brings more competition, and this structure has shaped student’s educational path that going to a good university is the only way to success. Most of my Korean friends are either international students or they immigrated to the U.S., looking for an opportunity to have a better life that cannot be achieved in Korea due to social systems. One of my friends decided to study abroad after she found out that she didn’t get into a university especially in the South Korea’s capital city, Seoul. Almost all elite universities are in Seoul, so many students dream to go to university in Seoul. For most of the high school students, college means everything, a stable job, better future, more opportunity, and an only way to survive. The competition starts in kindergarten, and this brings the steady demand for early English education for children among the upper classes. In the article “$9,660 a Year: English-Only Kindergartens Cost More than Medical Schools” by Si-soo Park (2019), he explains it is called as English-only kindergartens, but this is actually private institution which cost around $9,660 for the one-year tuition. These early years of education are so critical, as students are tested their English reading, writing, and listening skills through elementary school to high school, including the national exam. This is a big portion of the exam and college students are required to take TOEIC, The Test of English for International Communication, before applying for the jobs in Korea. However, not everyone has the same opportunity to learn English and attend private institution to prepare themselves before going to school.

In psychological approach, Muzafer Sherif, who was a proponent, tested a group conflict and how to avoid it. In the article “From Summer Camps to Glass Ceilings: the Power of Experiments” written by Lovaglia, Sherif thought was that the group of people works together for the same goal, each of them will develop a group identity. Such competition would make groups more bonding, and he believed working together will bring them a solution to those conflicts. His team then divided 22 boys into two different teams where a group consisted of boys who were all white, middle class, and closed to their 12th birthdays. Each group was competing against each other, and they showed aggressive behavior toward opposing groups when they played baseball. After all, researchers asked both groups to work together to fix the water supply as it was broken, and they became friendly by sharing the water to drink. From this experiment, we learned that competition brings conflict whereas cooperation brings less aggressive behavior and criticism. The groups of boys were not very different in terms of ages, race, and background but just having a competition against each other brought a group conflict. But working together for the same goal, this conflict can be resolved. From this experiment, we learned that the competition against each other can form a hostile environment to make group conflicts. By working together, we can create more bonding and thus will bring better results compared to any competition. One of the problems coming from this early competitive environment is comparison. Students compare themselves to one another and they begin to adopt the behavior of inferiority. What it means that not only students compare each other based on their academic grades, but their background, financial situation, parent’s educational background and so on. Those feelings will bring more frustration of not being able to have more advantages by private institutions. More competition brings great social repercussions, where people judge others by person’s educational level.

The consequence of neoliberalism shows the dark side of South Korea. In the article “Why South Korea falls silent once a year for its students” by Kate Whiting, she says that according to the OECD, South Korea has become one of the most highly educated people in the world, around 70%. The dream school in the U.S. is commonly refer to as “Ivy schools,” as in South Korea we called it as “SKY” (Seoul, Korea and Yonsei university), the top three schools which are all located in Seoul. Every student wants study so hard to get into one of those schools, but only less than 2% will be accepted (Whiting, 2018). This lower percentage is based on inequality exam grading system, where only top 4% will be classified as rank 1 (the highest rank). From middle school to high school and CSAT result, it is graded as a rank. This ranking system represents unfairness, which means if the exam was relatively easy and there are a lot of students got perfect scores (meaning 100%), a student whose score was 96% won’t be counted as a rank 1 even though 96% is technically an A, rank 1. This reveals that not only getting a good score is important but be one of those top 4% to get a rank 1 on exams is the controlling factor. Even only one point could lower the rank and this fact bring more fierce rivalry with each other rather working together for a common purpose, Suneung.

The rate of suicide in South Korea is the highest of the OECD countries, which is total 23 per 100,000 persons in 2017 (OECD, 2020). In 2019, around 38 people committed to suicide per day on average (KBS World Radio, 2020). The competition will never end even after the graduation. Students are told that the higher education promises a stable job with higher salaries. Especially, STEM majors can only lead to many job opportunities because the big companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, and LG electronics are the conglomerates and majority of companies relate to electronic and technology. Engineers are in high demand in the industries, and not just going to ‘SKY’ university but on top of that, majoring in engineering is necessary. The other path that many students dream to go to a medical school. In South Korea, medical school is total 6 years of learning, and students can apply to those schools after high school. It is not a graduate school compared to the U.S, and only top 0.1% students are expected to get into medical school. In 2020, 548,734 people applied for the exam and this means only 548.7 students can get in. In the U.S, since it is a graduate school and there are several different factors to be considered including GPA, extracurricular, volunteering in hospital, essays, publications and so on, but in South Korea, Suneung is the only factor to be considered. Many of them decide to retake the exam to get into the medical school and it is not strange people spend around 4-5 years to be one of top 0.1% applicants. Neoliberalism has a positive effect on abolishing all inefficiency, having competitive market, and improving the competitiveness of country. On the other hand, depression which brings rise in unemployment rate, the widening gap between rich and poor, a conflict between developed and underdeveloped countries due market-opening pressure.

The economic inequality in Korea is noticeable despite the continued economic prosperity. Among young people, they categorized the rich poor gap by based on the financial background, upper class as a gold spoon, middle working class as a silver spoon and lower working class as a bronze spoon. Since the rich people will get more richer and poor people will get more poorer by neoliberalism, young people started to believe that class is divided by inheritance from parents rather than individual effort. Only people considered as a gold spoon can afford to pay rent in Seoul since it is known for being expensive and have excess to most of the job opportunities that are found in Seoul specially. This extreme urbanization will lead to more economic inequality and various social problems. Middle and lower working-class citizen won’t have same chance as the upper class, in terms of the job market, access to medical care, higher education, and altogether, a better life. One of my friends in South Korea is living in Seoul, and we knew each other since the 5th grade. When we were both in the same class, I noticed that she was going to several different private institutions, and she was the one of top students. Same as her sister, and when she took the Suneung, she couldn’t get into the university in Seoul. Her parent told her to retake the exam next year, and there are special private institutions for high school graduates to prepare them for Suneung. It costs around $30,000 per year so my friend’s parent had to sell the house to support her sister. It advertises how many people got accepted into universities in Seoul and a lot of people ended up going there since the exam only offers once a year and they want to prepare as perfect as they can.

In the article written by Hossein Sharif, Eunsuh says "If you want to be recognised, if you want to reach your dreams, you need to go to one of these three universities." Dr. Seoyoung Kim is an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. I read her story from the newspaper, and the reporter asked her that it wouldn't have been easy to succeed as an Asian woman in the US. However, her answer was a shock. She said it was not as big as the prejudice she received from non-men and non-Seoul National University in South Korea. Even only top 0.1% students are expected to get into medical school but there is more beyond that. Those top 0.1% students are now divided into narrower, and only students with perfect scores or 1 question wrong will get into Seoul National University medical school. There is a rank system within medical school, so after the graduation only those ‘SKY’ medical school are guaranteed for their residency at a hospital that are in Seoul. Dr. Kim graduated from Hanyang medical school, and it is known as one of top middle university in Korea which is in Seoul. It is a widely known university for engineering school and it is one of popular university among students who are looking for a job related to engineering companies. However, within those top elite students, there is still competition and an invisible wall between them. It separates people and line them up, where ‘SKY’ universities prioritized and then other universities. This significant ranking determines the idea of the wealth and social position, and why the desire of going to higher education is the only key to success for their future.

One way to solve this problem, South Korea has changed the Suneung system in the following year. Before, the high school is divided into natural sciences and liberal arts curriculum tracks, and they have abolished the division and students can either pick different choices the exam offers for Korean and mathematics subjects. Secondly, the second foreign language and Chinese subject was graded on a curve, but they have changed it to absolute evaluation where no more curve system applied. The purpose of these changes is based on the reorganization plan of college admission system and the innovation toward the high school system. They more focused on the right of choice in education and ease the pressure on high school students. This abolish of distinction between STEM and non-STEM track makes it possible for students to freely choose up to two subjects according to their career. But still, this is the only way to get into university regardless. Professor Lee says that graduating from great university does not guarantee any stable job or income, and it is getting more difficult. However, it is still easier than students from lower-tier universities. He further explains "Of course, if you don't take the exam and go to university at all, it's nearly impossible to get a good job" (Sharif, 2018). As neoliberalism indicates personal responsibility to success and emphasizes only individuals. Young students are overly driven by private institution and freedom is taken away, where parents are responsible for expensive tuition fees and carry a heavy burden of responsibility, educate their children to help them to get into prestigious universities. Those private institutions and private tutors are taking the most benefits as well as the universities. The non-stop competition brings more inequality to our future generations and the country overall. Consequently, there is a steep decline in the birth rate since 2013, which reflects the dark side of South Korea. The increase in private education that is resulted from stiff competition leads to unfairness of access to education. The monopolization of resources brings the highest apartment prices in Seoul and neoliberalism inclines to rich to get richer while the poor get poorer. As Monbiot said, rich people induce themselves that they have earned wealth through merit, ignoring such advantages as education, inheritance, and class. There are not many things that working class people can do to change the circumstances, and Neoliberalism plays major role in our community as it is everywhere (Monbiot, 2016). As the pendulum moves by social movement, we should be mindful of our own rights and that can make an impact on our society overall. Having unfair educational system leads to monopolization, which then leads to unfair social system after all. The nation should emphasize that equal education system and to make it happen, the equal opportunity should be given to all people regardless of their financial background.

Works Cited

Sharif, Hossein. “Suneung: The Day Silence Falls over South Korea.” BBC News, BBC, 26 Nov. 2018.

Park, Si-soo. “$9,660 a Year: English-Only Kindergartens Cost More than Medical Schools.” Koreatimes,1 Oct. 2019.

Lovaglia, Michael j. “From Summer Camps to Glass Ceilings: the Power of Experiments.” Contexts, vol. 2, no. 4, 2003, pp. 42–49. JSTOR. Accessed 29 Nov. 2020.

OECD (2020), Suicide rates (indicator). doi: 10.1787/a82f3459-en (Accessed on 18 December 2020)

KBS WORLD Radio, world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_view.htm?lang=e.

Monbiot, George. “Neoliberalism – the Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Apr. 2016.