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43 Educational odyssEy of tHE KorEan studEnt It’s common for Korean students to spend 10–12 hours a day in classrooms, with many attending private learning academies after regular school. The equation of studying hard to be successful is deeply engrained, but comes with consequences: The number of student suicides is at a new high. The situation is clouded further when even top university graduates face competition from students returning from abroad with advanced English skills. Employees work late and children are often neglected, and the odyssey continues its cycle as another generation spends its days poring over textbooks. is KorEa’s Efl Education failing? Korean students dream of attending a top university and working for a large corporation, success in both of which usually requires above-average English skills. The EFL education industry that has grown up around this necessity is the largest in the world, and yet Korea ranks middle of the pack globally in English ability. As EPIK decreases the number of native teachers in public schools, critics lament the program for hiring unqualifed and poorly trained instructors. But the singular focus of Korean students on test scores and career advancement could be contributing to their mediocrity. KorEa’s dying studEnts Korea has the highest scores for high school reading and mathematics in the OECD. It also has the highest suicide rate, with a large percentage being students. Most students who have considered suicide say it was due to an overly competitive school environment, but in recent years bullying has become a signifcant factor, driving an increase in youth help programs and antiviolence education. The government is painfully aware of this problem and its effect on their global image, and is changing the way the country deals with mentally ill and depressed individuals in hopes of curbing the trend. initiatives, such as the free lunch program and social welfare, policy observers say. Part of the issue is a “power game” every time the leadership changes hands in efforts to make their mark, noted Paul Jambor, an assistant professor at Korea University. “However, since none of them have any genuine train- ing in English language teaching, the pendulum often swings violently back and forth out of control, without any real scientific or academic aim,” he added. One longtime teacher based in North Gyeongsang Province agrees. “In the 10 years I have been teaching, I have seen EFL education become very communicative and the quality was at its highest, but in only the last three years, educational institutions went backwards and decided that learning English for communication was not important, and all EFL ed- ucation focused on exams and test scores.” Korean and native English teach- ers alike have complained about the same problems year after year: over- crowded classrooms, not enough class time, half-baked curricula and textbooks and too much focus on test results over conversation skills. Native English teachers themselves, often untrained and given little direc- tion by their schools, have also been criticized over their usefulness amid a constant debate about whether to pursue practical English or high test scores. Just as the NET program reached its goal of one NET per school na- tionwide, education offices began to reevalu- ate the pricey programs. With NETs costing about twice as much as a Korean teacher, many offices began to downsize the program from 2011, ha iling the Korean counterparts as now qualified enough to take over the classroom. So, with the door ever narrow- ing for public school jobs, positions for native English teachers — who make up more than 70 percent of Groove Korea’s readers — are squeezed into an already-saturated private industry. Nonetheless, Korean parents still cling to the belief that their child will learn “correct” English from a West- ern teacher — a demand that drives parents to spend over 300,000 won a month per child for private train- ing in big cities. In comparison, the government has launched alternative after-school programs for those who can’t afford a hagwon, spending a comparatively paltry 13,000 won per student per month on them last year. In the end, teachers say it’s the economically lesser-off kids who will bear the brunt of the educational pol- icy wars. “Until I see a major change in the curriculum … and in attitudes to- wards native speaker instructors ... I see the quality of English education stagnating or going down, especial- ly for kids in lower socioeconomic backgrounds who can’t afford the ever-increasing price (of) hagwon or overseas immersion experiences,” said Chuck Hohenstien, who has taught on and off in Korea since 1996. “The elites will do OK. It’s the poor I worry about.” Story by Elaine Ramirez, editorial director / Photo by Romin Lee Johnson / Illustration by James Kim / Sidebar by J osh Doyle 11.2011 03.2013 09.2013