The Cost Of Education

By Author: Ian
Total Articles: 9
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Parental practices in securing education for their children have made South Korea 'the most exam-obsessed culture in the world'. Although this 'education fever' has reduced the illiteracy rate of South Korea to almost zero, the 'education fever' as a form of 'the relentless competition to score well on entrance Replica Cartier Santos exams' has been a major force in shaping the country's educational development, producing such problems as 'great financial hardship for millions of Koreans and many anomalies in both the educational system and the general economy' (Seth, 2002:5-6).

The amount of money spent on education in 2006 reached up to 20 trillion won or approximately. Korean parents 'invest' a large portion of their income on their children's education. The education includes all extracurricular lessons, such as cram schools (hagwori), private tutoring (kwaoe), English camps (yeongeocamp), and even language training abroad (haewoeyonsu). More than half of the money is being spent on 'English education' (yeongeokyoyuk). According to ...
... a recent report, the estimated amount spent on 'English education' in 2005 reached up to 15 trillion won (nearly $ 15 billion), including the money spent for tests of English. This is a huge increase when compared to the around 10 trillion won spent in 2000.

Unfortunately, this expensive investment in English education has never been regarded by Koreans as satisfactory or, more precisely, efficient. Compared with Japan, South Korea spent almost three times more money on English education, but, in spite of this, the average TOEFL scores for South Korean examinees ranked 93rd out of 147 countries in 2004 and 2005. This means that there is a 'high-cost and low-efficiency' in the English education of Koreans. This self-evaluated Omega Seamaster Replica Watches low competence in English has become 'a concern for government and industry, which feared a linguistic handicap that would hurt the international competitiveness of Korean firms' (Seth, 2002:190). In turn, this concern has added fuel to the education fever in South Korea, bringing about another more negative social phenomenon, 'English fever,' a term coined by Krashen (2003), so much so that English has now become 'a class marker'.