Why does Korea have so many hagwons?
For the same reason that some people want to build more private schools in the US — Koreans think their educational system isn’t good enough. They may be right, and I think it’s because they’re so focused on proficiency tests. Korean kids make some of the world’s highest scores on them. In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000) tests against other members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea took first place in science and second in math. But all that proves is that they do well at taking standardized tests. (Besides, Korea came in sixth in reading, and everything I’ve seen suggests that they are not a nation of readers.) Ironically, as proficiency testing has caught on in the US, Korea has begun to realize that their proficiency tests may be hurting their kids’ ability to learn much beyond how to pass the tests.
