Equity and Quality in education: a spotlight on Korea

Chiara Maria Achermann and Jacques Rosenberg

 
Korea’s focus on — and success in — education

Korea’s education policy has proven to be a benchmark for many countries. Taking a closer look at what Korea does in practice can be useful for understanding what works and what doesn’t in education.

According to the OECD, “almost one in five 15 year-old-students across OECD countries does not reach a minimum level of skills to function in today’s society, and there are large performance differences between students of different socio-economic backgrounds” (OECD, 2015, 44). We can agree that a child’s success depends on equity in and quality of education. But what does this mean? Basically, equity and quality means fairness and inclusion. Fairness means that no personal or social circumstances should stand in the way of a child’s potential, curiosity, and path to future success. Inclusion implies that every child should attain at least a minimum skills level (OECD, 2015, 43).

Three elements must come together to improve equity in education, giving students skills they need to thrive. The first is investing in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The second is tackling system-level policies, such as grade repetition or early school tracking. The third is supporting students and schools from disadvantaged backgrounds. South Korea is a model of success when it comes to these elements, although it does face challenges and has room for improvement in all three.

With Nuri Curriculum, Korea shows it cares about ECEC 

In 2012/13, Korea introduced the Nuri Curriculum. It seeks to integrate education for three to five-year-olds across childcare centers and kindergartens (Ministry of Education, 2019). Crucially, it ensures quality education regardless of the system in which a child is enrolled, while providing financial subsidies regardless of income level (Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, 2013, 2). Moreover, “[e]enrollment rates in early childhood and pre-primary education are among the highest in the OECD, with 89% of 2-year-olds and 90% of 3-year-olds enrolled in 2014” (OECD, 2016, 6). While early childhood education in Korea sets a high standard, monitoring of the current system remains the most pressing challenge. A possible solution would be “[s]tandardising monitoring tools and developing a unified monitoring framework” (OECD, 2016, 4).

Ability grouping and school choice hamper greater equity

Regarding system-level policies, Korea can be credited with a below OECD average number of students that repeat a grade (Gpseducation.oecd.org, n.d.). It also has the highest number of students enrolled in tertiary education in all OECD countries (OECD, 2018, 1). However, Korea struggles with ensuring equity. Unequal opportunities arise due to ability grouping, which is overwhelmingly prevalent in Korea. As a matter of fact, over 90% of Korean schools practice ability grouping. Furthermore, school choice is an important barrier to ensuring a more inclusive education system (OECD, 2016, 6).

Helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds

Korea has several policies for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. For example, after-school childcare is provided until 10 p.m. for children from single-parent families and from dual-income families with low incomes. And the Nuri Curriculum provides free childcare for low-income families for three years. Overall, the impact of poverty on student performance in Korea is significantly lower than the OECD average (Ncee.org, 2019). What’s more, Korea acts on the importance of “assisting students with diverse needs including North Korean students, students from multicultural family, [and] students with disability” (Ministry of Education, 2019). The government provides a strong mix of subsidies and programs to promote equality, support struggling students, and special education where needed, while curbing private spending on education (a main driver of inequality). However, “[c]hallenges arise to ensure that students from multicultural backgrounds are supported and integrated into the school system” (OECD, 2016, 6).

Korea’s success and obstacles still to tackle

In many OECD countries, important challenges persist regarding equity and quality in education. Korea has taken important steps by investing in ECEC, by introducing system-level policies, as well as by working on ensuring equal chances, whatever a student’s background. However, even Korea has yet to overcome some pressing challenges. Perhaps one of the most immediate is the falling behind of disadvantaged students. Indeed, the main “takeaway from the [2015] PISA results is that it is increasingly difficult for the nation’s teenagers to overcome socio-economic hardship and achieve academic success, and that the cycle of inherited poverty may become extremely hard to break free from” (The Korea Bizwire, 2018). Moreover, controversy remains over strong after school attendance, with a high proportion of students going to courses until late at night because of high pressure for high education performance, which some suggest can have an impact on the “highest suicide rate of industrialised OECD countries” (Chakrabarti, 2013).

Bibliography

Chakrabarti, R. (2013). South Korea's schools: Long days, high results. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-25187993 [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].

Eng.kedi.re.kr. (n.d.). Korean Educational Development Institute. [online] Available at: http://eng.kedi.re.kr/khome/eng/webhome/Home.do [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

English.moe.go.kr. (2019). Ministry of Education. [online] Available at: http://english.moe.go.kr/sub/info.do?m=020104&s=english [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

Gpseducation.oecd.org. (n.d.). Education GPS - Korea - Overview of the education system (EAG 2018). [online] Available at: http://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=KOR&treshold=10&topic=EO  [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

Hargreaves, A. and Shirley, D. (2012). Global Fourth Way. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, pp.1-47.

The Korea Bizwire. (2018). Academic Resilience of Disadvantaged S. Korean Students Drops - Be Korea-savvy. [online] Available at: http://koreabizwire.com/academic-resilience-of-disadvantaged-s-korean-students-drops/110092?fbclid=IwAR3_NwXms1BJtHAymSi0Xn0lDGpzRuJ3xuK9BmkxN2tHybvERN6fIQt9bMU [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

Korea Institute of Child Care and Education (2013). The Nuri Curriculum: The First Step toward the Integration of the Split Systems of Early Childhood Education and Care in Korea. KICCE Policy Brief.

Ncee.org. (2019). NCEE | South Korea: Supporting Equity. [online] Available at: http://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/south-korea-overview/south-korea-education-for-all/ [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

OECD (2015). Education Policy Outlook 2015: Making Reforms Happen. [online] OECD Publishing, pp.29-37, 43-118. Available at: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-policy-outlook-2015_9789264225442-en?fbclid=IwAR3fRtwKclk5a11H55Wfjp8HjSOGcf7fwYAG-BHVWNnct_lEIsHMMSyMOW8#page3 [Accessed 1 Feb. 2019].

OECD (2016). Education Policy Outlook: Korea. [online] OECD Publishing, pp.4-22. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/education/Education-Policy-Outlook-Korea.pdf [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

OECD (2016). Monitoring Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care Korea Country Note. Starting Strong IV.

OECD (2018). Education at a glance: Korea country note. [online] OECD Publishing, pp.1-7. Available at: http://gpseducation.oecd.org/Content/EAGCountryNotes/KOR.pdf [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].