[Column] Hey, universities, leave those kids alone!

Ryu Jae-myeong, Professor of Geography Education at Seoul National University.

Recently, college entrance essay preparation is taking the nation by storm. In Korean, the Chinese characters for the word 'storm' can be read as 'wind gone bonkers.' Let us take a detailed look at Korean society, as to who in particular has lost their marbles.

Is it the elementary school kids who have gone off the deep end? Perhaps it is the private after-school academies (hagwon) that stir up the crazy wind even further in order to make some money? Or maybe it is the parents that send their children to these pricey private education centers that have strayed from sanity?

No, no, no. These three are all acting within their "normal parameters." The youngster studying for the all-important essay exam a decade in advance is an enlightened child indeed. The private academies that cater to these children are just following their smell for profits. And in this age of capitalism, how can one call these industries abnormal? The parents concerned for their children's future are all too rational as well.

Who, then, is fit to plead the insanity defense? The Korean universities take the prize. Just as Obi-Wan Kenobi raised the young Anakin, only to be mauled on his light saber, so, too, will the universities of Korea be the ultimate victims of their own handiwork. If you are not following me, let us take a look around the world. Go to America, England, France or Germany. There is not a single eminent university that selects students through a directly administered essay exam, as do Korea's. But even though it all comes down to filling in bubbles on a test sheet, no one claims that they discount the importance of writing skills.

Every university is interested in choosing excellent students. Yet there is no institution of higher education that herds their applicants into a single spot at a given time to administer a test. Why is that? It is because it is so much easier to simply judge the admissions hopefuls on the basis of documentation gathered in advance. Reasoning that documents are unreliable, however, Korean universities profess the need to develop a new scale that hangs a student's fate on the third decimal point past the zero. Ask any university administrator in the world about this methodology and you will receive the same response. Balderdash.

The Korean universities justify their actions by referencing the inability to differentiate students by documents. Yet if they would devote only half of the funds and personnel budgeted for the administration of this test to the formation of a research team, then surely they could find a better means of selection. How can universities that cannot even devise such a system prattle on about their global standing?

Universities of the world are in fierce competition. Amidst this melee, the sole path to survival is in molding excellent students. Choosing among applicants is important, but educating enrolled students is absolutely essential. Yet let us think of Seoul National University. The level of the students there is certainly no less than that of their counterparts anywhere around the world. Yet how would these students rank in terms of holding a competitive edge compared to their peers in other countries? How about making graduating students take again the essay examination they took four years prior? How much would their original thinking skills and ability to logically express ideas with supporting evidence improve from their freshman year? Not much, I would wager.

If Korea is serious about secondary education, it needs to invest more in university education than it does in middle- and high-school instruction. Stop this incessant commotion about K-12 education. Elders of Korea - please leave the kids alone. And, o, ye universities that have instituted this test! Stop devouring the energy of our children, and take a good long look in the mirror.

Translated by Daniel Rakove

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