11th July 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The Government in South Korea has announced plans to scrap Saturday classes in its schools from 2012, according to an article on Bloomberg’s website. However, many parents, and most education experts have said that this will simply lead to a massive increase in private tuition taking place at the weekend. It is an interesting move by the government, and comes shortly after they vowed to try and curb the amount of private tuition and ‘cram tuition’ that Korean students receive.
South Korea has held classes on Saturdays since the end of the Korean war in 1953, and currently students attend school on two Saturdays per month. Possibly because of the intense school system, and prevalence of private tuition, South Korea and four of its neighbours hold the top five spots in an assessment of reading, Maths and Science skills conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The government’s move may come as something of shock to many other countries, because president Obama has recently said that the US needs to follow the example set by countries like South Korea, and in the western world, only Finland makes competes with oriental countries in any of reading, Maths and Science. Also, Japan has just announced that they may revert to Saturday classes, after making the same decision to stop them a number of years ago.
South Korean parents spend in the region of £150 a month on private tuition for their children, and in a country where average salaries have been steadily on the rise over the last few years, this amount is likely to increase. The educational competitiveness from neighbouring countries and students within their own country means that while parents may ideally like their children to play more on a weekend, rather than finding them a tutor, the feeling is that it’s just not worth the risk.