NO EDUCATION REFORM WITHOUT SOCIAL REFORM
 
    Moo-Young Han
    Editor-in-Chief
    Society of Korean American Scholars

    It has been 54 years since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The nation made giant strides
    in  economy and political structures.  When it comes to education, however, it is ending up with a collapse,
    after 54 years. Why?

    During the past 54 years, Korea has evolved through some eight administrations, at least 3 of them being
    military dictatorships.  During the current administration, we have had 7 education cabinet ministers in the
    last 5 years.  Assuming the average half-life of an education minister to be less than a year, we must have
    had some 50 education ministers, each of them displaying abrupt changes in policies in their own
    incompetent and at times sheer moronic thinking.

    The underlying zeal of the Korean parents to educate their young is simple and direct: they will do
    whatever it takes for their young to succeed in society.  By observing how others have succeeded, they
    can figure out what it takes to succeed in Korea.  And the answer is not pretty.  In order to succeed and
    get ahead in Korea, one needs the following: diploma from a prestigious university (It matters none
    whether students are truly educated of not, as long as they obtain the diploma), network of connections
    established during the university years, network of connections based on regionalism, factionalism,
    cronyism and nepotism, good aptitude for corruption, and 'certified' incompetence (If one is perceived
    as too competent, all those incompetents surrounding that person will see to it the person will not
    succeed).

    If you meet all these requirements, then you succeed. So, no matter how you tweak and adjust the
    education policies, it will all fail at the end.  Society must change before education can change.  Failure
    of the education system is simply a reflection of the failure of the social structure in Korea.

    Korea can only reform education when she can reform and redefine success and how to attain it.