The Magic of Korean Elementary Education

After the Korean War during 1950 and 1953, everything had been ruined in Korea. In the nineteen-sixties, Korea’s GNP per person was less than 100 US dollars, which was even lower than that of North Korea. Furthermore, there was almost no natural resource such as gold, silver, or any other metrological materials. But now Korea has become the 11th nation with respect to the size of GDP. This kind of rapid development of Korean economy can be caused by the great role of Education.

In order to understand the Korean society, we have to realize the influence of Confucianism. Since Yi dynasty in 1392, Confucianism has been a model and criterion of social behavior in Korea. According to the theory, teacher or scholar has been considered, even now, as the most respected job, Therefore, teacher is one of the most favorite jobs in Korea. Top one percent of high school graduates eagerly wish to be a teacher, especially elementary teacher. The top quality of teacher can guarantee the high quality of education. Accordingly, the high quality of education can make also effective and best quality of labor. There were several reasons why the teaching job is still attractive in Korea. In addition to the high social respect, relatively high salary, the movement of teachers’ union and stable pension system are the major power of Korean education.

And, one more great energy can be found in parents and their attitude toward their children. In other words, parents’ educational aspiration is extremely high in Korea. Usually they spend a fairly good amount of money on their children’s education, the total of which is almost five times more than those of public education budget.

Fortunately, Korea had a great leader, President Jung Hee Park who had a vision based upon economic development. The combination of our philosophy, current governmental education system, parents’ educational aspiration and the timely leader made what Korea is consequently.