Page 53 - IJPS-11-4

International Journal of
Population Studies Education fever in South Korea

depression is common (Lee & Larson, 2000; Kim, 2021). When students fail to meet the goals they have set for
Low exposure to emotional stimuli makes them vulnerable themselves or those set by their parents or teachers, they
to external factors and unable to cope with emotional feel ashamed to the extent that they may become passive
challenges such as peer violence, sexual violence, or and lethargic, or aggressive and even self-abusive. The
personal tragedies. These and other experiential shortfalls most prevalent cause of death among Korean teenagers,
during adolescence may have lifelong and irreversible ahead of car accidents in most years, is suicide. Widespread
consequences. stress over upcoming or recently failed university entrance
It has been estimated that up to 90% of students in large examinations is one of the most commonly reported causes
East-Asian cities suffer from myopia, compared to 20 – (Phosaly et al., 2019; Liu, 2020). Other behavioral responses
30% in the UK not due to genetic factors, but primarily of students to stress include violence toward teachers and
environmental and thus preventable factors. Excessive one another (Park et al., 2014; Moon et al., 2015; Bax &
desk study and lack of exposure to outdoor light have Hlasny, 2019). Figure 1 shows that the prevalence of private
been blamed (McGrath, 2012). High school students tutoring, its intensity in terms of typical hours, and its cost
enter school by 7:30 a.m., take classes until 6 p.m., and were stagnating or declining in the early 2010s but have
then remain at school until late at night to study quasi- been on a continuous rise since 2015. Correspondingly,
voluntarily at their own pace. Even middle and elementary the youth suicide rate increased sharply during 2015 –
school students are not spared, under the constant pressure 2021, reaching double the rates observed at the turn of the
from looming examinations and the nudging from their century.
parents and peers. 4. Discussion
The pressure on children from their mothers and This study emphasizes the conceptualization of education
by society at large can lead to explicit harms. Naver, the in South Korea as a rite of social initiation for children,
most popular search engine in South Korea, has a virtual coercing them into attaining narrow, standardized
consulting service where people with various personal education subject to high personal costs and unclear
concerns can post anonymously. Posts by high school benefits. Throughout their educational journey, children
students reveal the seriousness of their desperation and have little opportunity to voice their views or reservations.
exhaustion. As one female student wrote: The value system of Korean mothers, and by extension,
“I don’t know why, but I just get angry with myself. that of the Korean education system and society at
I can’t sleep until 4 a.m. as I’m extremely worried that large, internalizes children’s academic involvement and
I’d be late for school and be scolded by my teacher. achievement while largely externalizing children’s intrinsic
Every day, I wonder why I have to live if my scores are values and suffering. Korean social and cultural norms
not good in Korean language, English, and Math. There equip parents with firm control over their children’s
are so many students with better scores than mine. If I access to information and their basic functions, thus
can’t go to the university my parents want, why should allowing parents to dictate their children’s constructed
I live? I know my parents don’t have money to pay for value structures, emotions, and choices. The pressure for
private tutoring anymore. I feel so behind and lost. academic performance, the control of students’ bodies
That’s why I keep hitting myself.” (Anonymous, 2014) and minds by parents, and the splintered nature of the
More than 90% of high school students posting on the educational system result in uneven development for
anonymous consulting platform attribute their desperation children, imposing undue burdens and even long-term
to their poor academic results. Students internalize their harms. Children are deprived of opportunities to develop
scores and rankings compared to their classmates into their into wholesome, autonomous human beings and citizens
sense of self-worth and their perception of the meaning of because of prevailing norms, reductionist instruction
life. Instead of viewing their circumstances as composed at private institutes, and the insecurity and prestige
of various experiences in which education plays a limited orientation of children’s mothers.
part, their sense of the meaning of life rests solely on their We conclude that Korean students do not receive the
academic results. Low quotas on university acceptance protection from the educational system that they are
leave a mark on the students who fail, as they have not entitled to. Rather, they are robbed of their autonomy,
just failed an examination – they have disappointed childhood experiences, and the learning they should have
their parents and permanently disgraced their families’ received. This situation results mainly from the tacit social
honor (Ellinger & Beckham, 1997). Only a small subset compact among families, the state, and the education
of them can re-enroll in private academies to repeat the industry, which views youths in their liminal stage as
examination 1 year later. incomplete and believes they should be shaped in ways

Volume 11 Issue 4 (2025) 47 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2955