High Schools in State of Confusion

School officials and parents cannot hide their confusion as students returned to school for their first semester since the government announced its plan to cut private tutoring costs by bolstering the public education system on February 17.

Schools are holding meetings every day to discuss measures but are unable to come up with solutions as the Education Ministry has failed to provide them with a detailed enforcement plan.

Donga Ilbo surveyed 100 members of high school committees in Seoul from February 28 to March 2 and found that while most were for complementary classes matching the students’ abilities and after-school study hours, they displayed doubt for the expansion of performance-based evaluation or this plan’s effectiveness in cutting private education costs.

Against the expansion of performance-based evaluation--The survey asked the opinions of 50 parents and 50 local members from high school committees in Seoul, and 74 percent said that they approved of complementary classes according to the students’ abilities and after-school study hours.

However, 82 percent were against increasing the importance of performance-based evaluations. More than half of the parents against the evaluation stated that they could not trust the teachers’ evaluation standards.

A school committee is a council that decides overall school policies and is comprised of teachers, parents, and local officials. Therefore, the members’ opinions can be a fair reflection of how the schools are incorporating the government’s new education plan.

In the survey, only 37 percent of the respondents answered that lessons for the college admission test aired on EBS would help the students. Over half, 52 percent, said that they thought it would be ineffective or just be an added burden to the students’ workload.

When asked if they would cut their children’s private tutoring or lessons from private academies in good faith for the government’s plan, 73.2 percent answered “No.”

When asked if they were for the increased reflection of school records in college admissions, 67.3 percent of the members from the Gangnam area answered in the negative, while 59.2 percent of the Gangbuk members showed a positive response, displaying a distinct difference between districts.

Schools in confusion--While schools are diligently discussing measures, they are in accord that additional complementary classes tailored to students’ abilities cannot begin right away.

Mr. Park, a teacher at T high school in Seoul said, “I’m at a loss for there are so many things to do, including deciding the subjects for the complementary classes, forming a time schedule, and recruiting more teachers. It would be helpful if the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development would provide model examples of the program or realistic enforcement measures.”