"I would rather let my children run and play than spend nearly 3 million won a month forcing them to study. Under an admissions system that compels students to study ahead of their grade level, we are victims too."
A parent of two elementary school students living in Seoul's Daechi-dong, identified as A, sighed while speaking with this reporter recently, saying both students and parents are suffering because of a flawed college admissions system.
A shuttles the children from one cram school to the next because of a widespread belief that studying ahead of grade level is essential to securing top class rankings in high school. Those unfamiliar with the admissions process might assume that scoring well on the national college entrance exam is enough to get into a good university, but the regular admissions track now accounts for just 20% of total university seats. More important, the top ranks of the regular track are dominated by repeat test takers who have sat the exam several times, making it very difficult for current students, who must prepare for school grades and the entrance exam at the same time, to produce results through that route.
As a result, enrolled students have little choice but to go all in on the early admissions track, which weighs school records. In school districts such as Daechi-dong, it is not hard to find elementary students working through high school math and English exam papers in preparation for written tests they will not take for several years. Add the burden of performance assessments, administered two or three times per semester for each subject, along with preparation for entrance exam practice tests, and keeping up with regular class material becomes difficult without studying ahead. Some observers say demand for advanced study has risen in particular under the five-tier class ranking system introduced starting with the current second-year high school class, a structure in which receiving a second-tier grade in even one or two subjects makes admission to a top university very difficult.
The current admissions system is also behind a rise in the number of students who drop out of high school to focus entirely on the regular track, mostly those who received poor results immediately after their first-year midterm exams. The increase in repeat test takers seeking university admission through the regular track, even as the school-age population shrinks, is likewise largely due to an admissions system centered on school records that offers no second chance. In the end, it is not that today's students and parents are unusually driven, but that they are choosing different strategies from previous generations to match an evaluation system that runs through all three years of high school.
The government, meanwhile, which has steadily raised the admissions burden on students, blames private education providers and parents, telling them not to be misled by the "anxiety marketing" of cram school operators. More recently it has disclosed half-formed policies, such as introducing essay and short-answer sections to the national entrance exam, stoking further anxiety.
So what is the solution? An answer can be found in the views of parents whose children recently went through the admissions process. When the Korean Educational Development Institute surveyed those parents last year on which element should carry the most weight in college admissions, the national entrance exam ranked first at 29.3%, while school records ranked fourth at 18.8%. The most upvoted comments on articles about college admissions likewise call for expanding the regular track to its earlier share. Even at the cost of criticism that it amounts to a return to ranking-driven education, shouldn't the government take the demands of those it serves into account and give serious consideration to expanding the regular admissions track?