Liberalized tutoring takes toll on schools

In a classroom of third-year high school students at a school in Kangnam at about 9 a.m., the Earth Science teacher had to awaken three sleeping students. He scolded the students, "Granted, you are tired, but sleeping at such an hour in the morning is a bit too much."

However, the responses from the students forced the teacher to abandon his scolding. The students replied that they had been receiving extracurricular tutoring from midnight to 4 a.m. to prepare for the scholastic aptitude test for the past month.

Tutoring lasts into morning:

"After school, I rush over to an academy and study Korea, English, math and other important subjects until midnight," a students named "Shin," 18, said. "Then I rush home for home tutoring for social studies."

With the scholastic aptitude test becoming less difficult than in the past, while the core subjects have lost much of their role in distinguishing between excellence and average due to lower difficulty level, subjects such as social studies play a greater role in the success of the test. As such, many virtually have abandoned classroom studies altogether. The student pays 300,000 won per month each to the two extracurricular academies after school.

At a high school in Kangnam, of the 40 students in a classroom of seniors, 30 of them attend after-school academies. Most come home around midnight or 1 a.m., then as the scholastic aptitude test nears, some have added yet more study time for social and science studies, which last well into the night and morning. Such students, about three or four per class, come to school lacking sleep.

"Such students mostly sleep during school," one teacher said. "However, as they are seniors (facing scholastic aptitude tests), it is difficult to scold them."

Study programs vary:

Since the liberalization of extracurricular studies in April, the programs offered by many academies have varied. Although it is not something new to have public school education take the back seat to extracurricular ones, these days it seems as though all aspects of education are led by academies. As such, academies have developed varied programs to attract students to their institutions.

Among them, there are academies that specialize in helping students raise their grade-point averages (GPAs) through focusing on the midterms and finals at schools. An academy in Kangnam offers separate school-specific classes in preparation of midterms and finals at schools nearby. The academy has become enormously popular, as it boasts a database of previous exams that have been given at the school for each of the subjects, then taught at its classes as the students prepare for the tests.

"During the last midterm, an academy near the school was found selling a package containing five years worth of test questions at a high price and resulted in a formal protest," a teacher at a middle school in Songnam City in Kyonggi Province said. "With the GPA becoming an important factor in reaching a good high school, such incidences have become quite common among the academies."

On top of it all, when a boom in academic competition places importance in greater achievements in such areas, academies offer special classes for such competition.

When the essay writing ability is seen as the important criterion, academies offer such special classes. The zeal of the academies to provide new programs and packages cannot be understated.

"The extracurricular study trend has moved away from the one to one home tutoring with university students, but has moved to the academies offering expertise in various subjects and classroom gradation," a teacher at an academy with five years experience in supplemental studies said. "When three or four students with similar achievements and requirements gather, the academy introduces a teacher for the group."

Public school teachers despair:

The despair of the school teachers who have witnessed such a shift in the role of the two institutions, the public schools and the academies, have reached its limit.

"With Korean, English and math subjects becoming easier, the students who make fewer mistakes in other subjects requiring rogue memory tend to have higher GPAs," a teacher of third-year students at an all-girl high school in Seoul said. "As such, the top student at a school feels the need to receive an academy education."

With all the students busily memorizing the questions and answers that might be on the test as suggested by the academies, expecting the students to be able to research and learn through their own volition is much like hoping for a rain on a cloudless day.

A common voice among teachers shares the loss of the educational role of the public schools.

"More often than not, students rebel and say that the academy teacher taught it differently, and much of the homework is done by the academy teachers themselves," one complains. "The school, rather than being an educational institution, has become one that only grades the students."

A teacher in Kangnam said, "With so many various academies that offer per subject studies at 200,000 to 100,000 won per month, many students compare themselves to others and create unnecessary competition."

Huh Moon-Young angelhuh@donga.com