South Korean education
By: Kendall Cline, Cameron Steward, and Alexis Tingley
South Korea ranks number 2 in education in the world. Right behind number one Finland. South Korean education is very competitive. The education in this country could be helpful to the United States because we could move up in our world ranking.
In the United States our lessons are about 40 minutes long, in South Korea regular lessons are 45 minutes long. Also before school students have a 30 minute extra block to have a self study. Many high school highschool students usually leave to go to school at 5 am return around 10pm study for two hours then get back up at 2 for more self study to go back at 5am. Middle school students usually take 7 lessons with one block in the morning before regular lessons and one extra lesson specializing in an extra subject to finish the day. The study problem got so bad that in 2008 they had Monday to Friday they had a full week and every 1st, 3rd, and 5th Saturday they had half days. Those classes usually consited of extracurricular classes, but in 2012 they made it illegal to go to school on Saturdays.
The types of schools in South Korea are public schools and private schools just like in the Unites States. Most students choice decide to go private academies to boost their academic preformenses. Hagwon is what their private schools are Normally called. Public schools have longer classes and are obviosly free, unlike private schools that cost depending on the school youre going to. If would like to become a primary school teacher, which is their elementary school you have to get a major in primary teaching. Most students choose to get a post secondary education after high school. There are few colleges in South Korea but they are top schools in the world.
In South Korea when your in school that's all you think about. They have a very pressured education system. They get very little breaks. Their final year of high school they have no free time for vacations or breaks they must study. Often times when family's offer students vacations they turn it down because they are more concerned about their education and studying. Some parents make their kids start studying for their ACTS before they get into middle school. Even in middle school students don't want to take breaks because they want to prepare for high school and get into a top high school so they can get into a top college for post secondary education.
The average South Korean class room has about 10 computers for everyone to share. They have core subjects just like us. They learn writing, listening, reading, speaking, algebra, geometry, science, soical studies, history, fine arts, and english. Most schools the students stay in one classroom all day and the teacher changes depending on the subject being taught. Students usually don't ask questions they usually try to just focus on details. This is nothing like the United States, most student ask questions because they don't understand. They chose not to ask questions because the detail is more important and they don't want to miss anything else.
In conclusion South Korean education systems are very competetive. school hours, types of schools, breaks, and class roomsate very important aspects in their educational system. Also this shows how much harder they work. This also shows hos they have international scores much higher than us. Hopefully this will maybe give America an idea on how to improve our education systems.