Headline, February 12 2025/ STUDENTS : ''' SOUTH KOREA'S SOARS '''

STUDENTS : 

''' SOUTH KOREA'S SOARS '''

THIS WRETCHED CRAM SCHOOL GRIND : Intense pressure from the entire society - leads South Korean children - [ Always referred to as Angels on esteemed !WOW! ] spend hours each week in extra classes. Dear, dear Me.

FOR YEARS, Lee Kyong Min's life revolved around shuttling her two daughters from school to cram schools to home.

It was a routine followed by nearly every other parent she knew, all sharing the same goal, making sure their children got into South Korea's best universities

The decisive element was their choice of hagwons, the private cram schools where students take extra curricular classes in math, Korean and English to prepare for the country's infamously competitive college admissions exams.

Ms. Lee, a former advertising professional, and her husband who works in finance, had enrolled their children in the best they could find. Seven days a week, she waited for them late into the night at cafes packed with other parents doing the same.

Sometimes, she saw little angels/children with schedules so packed that they juggled homework and dinner in those cafes before hurrying off to their next classes.

Extracurricular education, which expanded alongside the demand for university degrees as the country shifted to a white-collar economy in the 1990s, is now omnipresent in South Korea.

It is also the center of long-running debates about the consequences of unchecked academic competitions. Many parents wonder what alternatives, if any, exist. 

When Ms. Lee's daughters questioned why they had to spend so much time studying outside school, she told them it was necessary because academic achievement equaled opportunity, which meant a happy life.

But her belief in this idea began to fracture when her eldest, then around 8, asked : '' MOM, were you a bad student ? ''

'' I realized she saw me as unhappy,'' said Ms. Lee, 48. '' I felt like I'd been hit in the head.''

Now she wondered : What vision of life and happiness was she presenting to her daughter? It is a question most parents in South Korea are confronting.

Eighty percent of South Korean school-age students now receive some form of private extracurricular education, according to government data.

While the schooling-age population has been shrinking for decades, this market grew to a record $20.3 billion in 2024.

Children are entering cram schools at younger ages. In some districts in Seoul, the capital, children as young as 4 take entrance exams for English-Language preschools. Others enter medical school prep tracks in elementary school.

Even in a country long inured to intense academic competition, these developments have provoked alarm.

South Korea's human rights commission has said that subjecting preschoolers to such high-stakes testing is a violation of their rights.

Lawmakers, blaming hagwons for an adolescent mental health crisis, have vowed to intervene.

But the system that created them, as Ms. Lee would discover, is not so easy to change.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on '' The growing concerns about  South Korea's cram school grinds, continues.

The World Students Society thanks Max Kim.

With most respectful dedication to the Leaders, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of South Korea, and then the world.

See You all prepare for the great '' Constitutional Democratic Convention '' on The World Students Society - for every subject in the world - : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless