At this point it is common knowledge that a student's grades depends on his parents financial status. The results of a study by Korea University professor Kim Gyeong Geun demonstrate that college scholastic aptitude test scores are precisely proportionate to parental financial ability but prove only what was already known.
To parents of low-income families that haven't given up on the belief in classroom education and personal effort, however, the news is profoundly serious, because poverty leads to poor grades and low levels of education which in turn lead to poverty.
The results of Kim's study remind you of the explanation by one American economist about how the vicious cycle of poverty comes in three forms. The first is the vicious cycle that takes place in underdeveloped countries, and the second and third forms are cycles that take place in low-income family finances. In relation to education the cycle is "poverty, low education, low skill, low productivity, low income, poverty," and in relation to health it is "poverty, poor health, low productivity, low income, poverty." Poverty leads to deeper poverty through low education and poor health.
Korea's economy is the world's 11th largest, and yet the gap between rich and poor has emerged as the most serious factor threatening our society. The country's poor number 7.16 million. In his Liberation Day address, president Roh Moo Hyun said resolving the extreme economic differences is going to be one of his key tasks. But his solution looks only at economic measures such as the creation of jobs.
Education has to be at the center of any solution to the extreme economic differences. As long as parents' poverty leads to greater poverty for the child the gap cannot be resolved. There has to be an end to hereditary poverty and wealth through education, requiring that all children are given fair opportunities for education. The answer is already available. Public, classroom education needs to be the center of education. The children have done nothing wrong.
The Hankyoreh, 16 August 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Hereditary Poverty and Education |
