Competition fierce for entry into magnet high schools

A middle schoor yawning in class.

Middle schoolers study until dawn, skip classes to make the cut

Many South Korean students regularly nod off during school hours, as their afterschool private lessons keep them captive late at night - sometimes until dawn. These students are not all high schoolers, either: middle school students who want to get into elite magnet high schools that specialize in foreign languages or science must prepare for a grueling examination process in the hopes of making the cut.

At one middle school in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, nearly all of the top-50 ranked third-year students made preparations to get into magnet high schools last year. Half were successful.

Since admissions officials at magnet high schools look only at a student’s transcript through the first half of their third year of middle school, students largely spend the second half of the year in private tutoring rather than focusing on in-school studies.

"Besides the level of English required, the level of math examined for admission into special-purpose high schools is far higher than the level taught in regular middle school classes," said a teacher at the Anyang middle school. "So, teachers cannot help the students."

In general, middle schoolers preparing for such exams spend an average of over eight hours daily at afterschool private tutoring institutions. An official at a private institution in Seoul said, "We could say that these students are attending two schools at once."

The examination pressure is particularly evident in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam and Mok-dong districts. Kim Seung-hui (not her real name), a third-year student at a middle school in Mok-dong, said, "About 10 students per homeroom, or some 200 in a graduating class, prepare for the exams for special-purpose high schools. With the exams approaching, some of my friends are absent from their regular classes in order to study other subjects."

At a middle school in Gangnam’s Daechi district, about one in four students prepares for the exams. A 45-year-old parent, only identified by her surname, Jo, said, "The school seems to be unhappy because too many students are preparing for the exams." At another middle school in Gangnam’s Seocho-dong, a teacher, identified as Ha, said, "Sometimes, I feel pity for my students, who are in a competition forced upon them by their parents. Sometimes, I feel pity for myself, because I can’t guide my students."

Some middle schools have been accused of giving their students extra help in preparing for the exams by allowing them to "cut" class legally. For example, as the exam date approaches, some students attend private tutoring institutes during regular school hours, but the schools place an "experience study" on the students’ transcripts during this time slot so that on paper, the students have not officially been absent from school.

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