South Korea simplifies school exams to boost birth rate

A female student raises her hand during a class at Jongno Hagwon Commercial Private Academy in Mokdong Photo: YELIM LEE/AFP

South Korea vows to simplify school exams to encourage people to have more children.

The move comes after President Yoon Seok Yeol criticized college entrance exams this month that include questions outside the public school curriculum, and called them «Killer Questions» because of their difficulty.

Fearing that their children will not be able to answer certain questions in entrance exams if they have received a public education, parents in South Korea are often pressured to send your children to private schools.

The cost of education is cited as a reason for declining birth rates.

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“We will break the vicious circle of deadly exam questions that lead to excessive competition between students and parents in private education,” said briefing by Education Minister Lee Joo Ho.

President Yoon Suk Yeol criticized college entrance exams this month. Photo: LUONG THAI LINH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The ministry has also pledged to crack down on private education «cartels» by stepping up efforts to crack down on so-called false and exaggerated advertisements for private schools aimed at exam preparation.

Local media report on alleged links between the private education industry and government education officials in composing college entrance exams that require private tutoring.

South Koreans have spent a record 26 trillion won (£156 million) on education. private education last year despite declining enrollment, a joint report from the Department of Education and the State Bureau of Statistics showed.

Nearly eight out of ten students receive some sort of private education, such as preparatory schools, known as “ Hagwons,” according to the report.

This heavy reliance on private education has resulted in South Korea having the highest cost of raising a child in the world, according to last year's report, and the lowest birth rate in the world.

South Korean students take their annual school entrance exam in Seoul. Photo: CHUNG SUNG-JUN/AFP

Killer questions are usually taken from materials not included in the public school curriculum, which opens the door for hagwons to help teach students how to solve them.

Proponents of such questions say that they help colleges select candidates in a competitive environment, but Mr. Yoon mentioned the issue of fairness, pointing out that not every family can afford to pay for extracurricular activities. worrying about private education.» , said the planned changes may not be enough to curb competition.

«The government needs to come up with a broader plan that addresses the question of how to mitigate this excessive competition to get into some of the best universities,» he said.

Last year, about 450,000 high school students across the country and graduates took the exam again in November. The all-day event suspends airline flights for part of the English listening test.

Education-related stocks in South Korea tumble on fears of policy changes.< /p>