A school without bells? Classes that stretch overtime to accommodate discussion? Students who do homework in an actual library? This may not sound like a Korean high school, but Ok-ya seems to have broken the mold:
No students in the school attend private cram school for further study. Instead, starting from 6p.m. students receive specially tailored tutoring from 29 teachers. On weekends, students can learn essays from their teachers if they choose to. The library, which closes at 2 a.m., is where all students study together, so they can help each other with any problems.
So far their hard work has paid off. Since the school opened in 2003, a number of students have gained admission into Seoul National University (SNU), the most selective university in Korea; one in 2003; two in 2005. In 2005, 103 students (the entire graduating class) were accepted into four-year universities. In 2007, 20 students were accepted into universities in Seoul, including SNU and Korea University.
Of course, one school does not a trend make. And as long as the university entrance system continues to reward those students with the means to attend top cram schools, I don’t see much educational reform coming to Korea any time soon. Nonetheless, Ok-ya’s attempt to do something different is encouraging, even if its students are just as book-bound and free-time-starved as the cram-schoolers. The more attention alternative education gets in this country, the better.
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Sounds like a step in the right direction, but what Korea really needs is a better public school system. A system that doesn’t require supplementary schooling and private teaching during the time kids in North America or Europe might be enjoying hobbies, meeting friends, playing sports, etc. All the kids wind of getting screwed out of what should be the best years of their lives, with less privileged kids generally getting the least to show for it.
Wish it weren’t the case, but I don’t see things improving much down the road. In addition to the entrenched position of a private shadow education system in Korean society, I’m doubtful that the average Korean would be willing to pay more in taxes to give all the nation’s kids a better all around education. I suspect most parents are more willing to gamble on private tutoring to get their own kids the desired results - admission into a high name value Seoul university - over the competition. I’m not sure if this is a case of Koreans proving to be more individualistic than group-minded, or whether they don’t think the Ministry of Education would be up to the task even if it had the resources to reform things for the better. Maybe both.
It is difficult to argue with success but, judging by what happened to the last president of Korea University, some will argue quite vehemently.
I’m glad to hear of this school though because it is better than the essay I had posted about, regarding China.
I don’t see how any of it matters.
Prenatal education is all the rage.
I read the above article with considerable interest, as I live less than 20 minutes from Ok-ya High School. The article claims ‘No students in the school attend private cram school for further study’. This is simply false. My friend owns an after-school English academy in Changnyeong City, Changnyeong-gun, and teaches students from Ok-ya High School school until as late as 12.30AM. The article claims ‘In 2005, 103 students (the entire graduating class) were accepted into four-year universities’. This also cannot be true, as the graduating class includes commercial students who have no intention of going to four-year universities.
The school does on the whole have a good reputation in the area, but it’s not that stellar. I suspect that it is over-inflating its results, and believe its claims should be more carefully investigated. I’ve come across many, many students from Ok-ya High School who have almost no English skills whatsoever. An American teacher who taught there told me that the English teachers at Ok-ya’s ajacent middle school have far better English skills than Ok-ya’s high school teachers do. Furthermore, they have gone through three foreign English teachers within the past 18 months. This makes the quality of at least their English programme very suspect.
I wish that the author of this article would investigate his subjects a little more carefully and not just take things at face value. Ok-ya high school may have some good ideas, but clearly it is not what it makes itself out to be.
Last night at a festival at my school I caught two girls from Ok-ya High School smoking off to the side of our school’s cafeteria. It would be interesting to hear the head teacher’s explanation as to why two of his students were smoking at another school at 9.00PM, given the above.
#5: “I wish that the author of this article would investigate his subjects a little more carefully and not just take things at face value.”
Welcome to commissioned journalism, the norm for Korea.
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