Educational inequality between regions and social classes is not a breaking news story for Korean students preparing for college applications. The survey conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2020 indicates unequal opportunities and results in education among regions and social classes seem to deteriorate, with middle school students showing significant interregional gaps in the core classes.
Along with this situation, the private education market is fueled by Koreans’ obsession with entering a prestigious university, making a profit of approximately 2.34 billion Korean won solely in 2021. It has hit its peak since 2007 when it first started investigating the market. According to a study done by MOE in 2021, the expenses students in rural areas spend on private education account for 46.6 percent of the amount students in Seoul spend. Ewha students revealed that this figure is highly related to the inadequate educational environment of both public and private education in rural places.
Son Kang-na, a freshman majoring in Chinese Language & Literature, finds it tough for students living in rural regions to receive advice on college applications. Son was raised in Gumi City at Gyeongsangbuk-do, lacking diversity and qualities in school activities compared to what schools in Seoul have. When she applied for universities, she wanted to know what to write for a college essay and how to organize her high school transcript, which contains her grade point average (GPA) and extracurricular activities.
“Most students in Gumi apply to universities through a process which only counts GPA since it is almost impossible to compete with students in Seoul on the process which considers extracurricular activities,” Son said. “I was astonished about how easy it is for students in Seoul to receive help from both school and academies consulting on extracurricular activities.”
The college application system that differs from year to year also made it difficult to solidify her strategies for applying to college. Son stated that teachers hardly caught up with recent trends of exam systems.
“The only channels where I could get information were online communities such as Orbis Optimus,” Son said. “I was aware of the questionable reliability of data posted on the communities as all users can upload freely, but there was no alternative for me.”
Lee Sang-yeon, a sophomore from the Department of Social Studies Education, had attended high school at Buyeo-gun, Chung-cheongnam-do. Lee criticized the shortage of teachers allocated to schools in rural places, which frequently resulted in the case of limited elective courses.
“I could not take a second foreign language test in the College Scholastic Ability Test since there was no teacher for the course,” Lee said. “Students living in big cities can easily find private education, but we barely have classes for core subjects. I tried to learn a second language through online classes from private education, but it was almost impossible to learn the language all by myself.”
Lee also worries about her sister left in Buyeo-gun who is supposed to study under the High School Credit System (HSCS), which will be adopted in every school by 2025. The HSCS requires extensive infrastructure and specialized faculty to be appropriately operated and allow each student to decide what to learn. Lee questioned whether the system would offer students in rural areas the same quality of education.
Park Mi-hee, the Associate Research Fellow of the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training, points out that interregional inequality in education is a byproduct of imbalanced national development. Park indicates that most facilities and fine jobs are accumulated in specific cities, widening the gap in settlement conditions between city and rural areas. It also led to aggravating household income and investment in education between regions. Park maintained that the imbalanced national development that occurred in the parent’s generation has resulted in educational inequality in the children’s generation since the 2010s.
“The government offers credits for being appointed to schools in rural areas or with bad conditions,” Park said. “Still, allocating capable teachers to those schools is getting harder due to unequal settlement conditions.”
Park noted that interregional educational inequality happens within a city as an income gap variable intervenes. Park believes that the authorities diversify the college application process to ensure equity and to implement education reflecting each region’s distinct characteristics.
“We should not adhere to the current charitable approach when figuring out solutions for educational gaps,” Park asserted. “It is time to think about how to ensure equality in every educational process, rather than pursuing superficial equality.”