|
August 25, 2008
|
|
| It was a slow Saturday afternoon in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul, with a few groups of teenagers laughing and lounging by the street. But the atmosphere inside Topia English Zone, a premier English cram school in an area densely populated with private schools, could not have been more intense. Some 80 sixth-graders in three white rooms were busy taking tests in English grammar, writing and speaking while their mothers anxiously waited in the next room. The 13-year-olds were hoping to get into international middle schools, as part of their longer-term goals of being admitted into elite colleges here or abroad. Taking the Saturday placement test for Topia’s international middle school prep course was their very first step in what will be an excruciatingly competitive and costly journey over the next six years. “We’re just a middle-class family and it is not as easy for us to afford the tuition here as for other people. But I want to provide my girl with everything she wants, and give her as much as I can,” said a mother of one student sitting the Saturday test. This mother, like many who gathered at the school, declined to be named or to identify her daughter. Her daughter wants to attend a foreign language high school, an elite school that sends hundreds of graduates to prestigious local colleges or American Ivy League universities. Going to an international middle school, where students will be taught all subjects except for Korean literature and Korean history in English, will be a golden opportunity to increase the possibility of getting in, she said. “People say it’s an elite form of education unaffordable to poor people and that it discriminates against the poor. But for me and many parents, it is a perfect alternative to sending our young kids to the United States,” said the mother, who is in her early 40s. The tuition for such international middle school prep courses usually amounts to about 500,000 won ($470) a month or more. The annual tuition for the new international middle schools will be set at the relatively economical price of up to 4.8 million won, on top of the first-year entrance fee of 700,000 won. The lower cost is designed to quell criticism that the schools will only be affordable for children from rich families. “I don’t understand why the government lets parents risk sending their young kids abroad to waste all that money in a foreign country. The government can stop the outflow simply by offering equally good education here in Korea.” She is not alone in thinking this way. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education last week finalized a plan to open two new international middle schools in eastern Seoul, in addition to the three-year-old Cheongshim International Academy in Gyeonggi Province. Since then, private English cram schools have attracted hundreds of eager parents to their admission information sessions, urging them to enroll their kids before it’s too late. The state education office, in order to ease the potential side effects of the new schools, declared it will beef up inspections on private cram schools to check whether they are putting out any exaggerated ads or charging tuitions that are higher than district-designated limits. But experts say it will be difficult to stop the near-religious fervor of local parents whose biggest fear is seeing their children lose out in the competition to get into a good college. In Korea, college credentials are a major factor in getting jobs in both private companies or government agencies, and even have an effect on marriage prospects. “The burden on local parents has greatly increased because the competition to get into special private high schools or foreign language high schools has heightened since the Lee Myung-bak administration took office,” said Yoon Ji-hee, president of local education civic group called No Worry. The government under former President Roh Moo-hyun was reluctant to approve the establishment of the elite schools, fearing potential public criticism that the change would only benefit affluent families who can afford expensive prep classes at private cram schools. But Lee, who calls himself “the business-friendly president,” has strongly advocated the freedom of each school to open new types of institutions in response to parents’ demands. Last week’s controversial decision is viewed as expressing the Lee administration’s stance on public education. “In the past, about three to four students in each middle school class tended to prepare to get into special high schools, like the foreign language schools,” said Yoon. But now the number has increased to about 20, meaning the middle schoolers need to take more cram school classes and sleep less to win in the fiercer competition to get into the elite schools. And the opening of the new international middle schools, which many parents view as a surefire way to get into prestigious high schools, will further spread the competition down to elementary school children, said Yoon. “Now the international middle schools will be the new first step of the classic route through foreign language schools or Korean Minjok Leadership Academy [a prominent high school] before going to premier colleges here or Ivy League colleges,” said a senior staff member at Chung Dahm Immersion School, who declined to be named. The education office, in what it called a measure to curb entrance competition, said the new middle schools will screen applicants based on school GPAs, extracurricular activities and interviews, before selecting the final 320 winners through random lottery. But parents pointed out it would only make parents pin their hopes on what would in the end amount to sheer luck. “My daughter is not a perfect straight-A student. But if she manages to pass the first two stages, who knows if she will be lucky enough to win the final lottery?” said the mother at Topia, taking her daughter home after the two-hour test. “We will try anything to send our kids to good schools.” By Jung Ha-won, Park Sun-young Staff Reporters [hawon@joongang.co.kr] |
|
