::A Geek in Korea::

Today I got to see a graduated middle school student that had missed a week of classes. He told me he had been studying for a series of high school examinations. This was very odd, as he hasn’t attended high school yet, but was already preparing for their tests. What would these tests be about?

The process of getting into a high school is competitive. The students took tests last year to decide which schools they could attend. From what he told me, all middle school students that enroll in a high school must take a test this week to determine the level of class they will be placed in the school they entered. These tests are standardized and administered by the government. This is just to check to see if students had forgotten anything from the LAST set of standardized tests, and serve as a general guide to placing students. They aren’t binding, as the schools can use other factors to determine where students are placed in class.

My student told me that his school has a secondary set of tests created for the process of seating students in “special classes”. These special classes are the elite of the school, and students in these classes will be given more information and special help to prepare for their college entrance examinations.

It gets worse.

Not only are these “special classes” given more information to help them pass tests, but getting into these classes isn’t only determined by grades on examinations. If wealthier students pay a fee to offset low scores, they will be allowed to join these “special” classes.

All of this is illegal, of course, but no one reports it. The teachers can use tests as a form of blackmail, threatening to kick out underperforming students to collect cash from worried parents. The students in the classes get perks that help them, so they try to keep up with their studies.

What I don’t understand is what keeps the other students from reporting the problems to the Ministry of Education. If you were forced to pay for a private High School education, but were told that the special classes would be better informed, why would anyone settle of “second rate” education?

Education isn’t something that should be treated this cynically. I work as hard for a lower level class as I do for a higher level class, and I don’t expect a bribe to do my job.

The student recognized it was criminal, and unfair, but he said he intended to be in the special classes, not on the outside looking in. This is the problem. As long as people think they will benefit at the expense of others, gaining a competitive advantage on the only test that matters, the college entrance examination, nothing will fix this sort of problem.