A Vicious Cycle of the Passing Down Poverty
Sang Kyul Park November 19, 2012There is a saying, “It is a case of a black hen laying white eggs.” It means that one can achieve excellent results under unfavorable conditions. In the past, when a poor student admitted into a prestigious university, people bring this saying to mind. However, this saying does not fit to the present. Nowadays, students who entered prestigious universities are mostly well off. Their parents are wealthy enough to pay for the private educational institutes and the private lessons of their children.
In Korea, to apply to the universities, all students are required to take the College Scholastic Ability Test. The College Scholastic Ability Test is divided into five subjects which are language(Korean), mathematics, foreign language(English), research(Social, Science or Career) and a second foreign language. The score of the College Scholastic Abitility Test influences university entrance. Especially, the scores of the language and mathematics decide the acceptance. Therefore, in order do well on their exams many high school students go to private educational institutes or receive private lessons to make up what they lack at school. However, private educational lessons are a privilege that not many are able to enjoy. As a result, those students who receive supplementary lessons could get higher score and have higher college entrance rate than the students who do not. Further more, generally more wealthy families live in Seoul than in the other districts. Therefore, the students in Seoul get the higher score than the students in Gyeonggi-do or in the other districts.
On 5th November, Kim Young-chul, a research member in the Korea Development Institute(KDI), announced the report whose title is ‘The Directions for the Expansion of the Gap and the Fairness of the Opportunities for the University Entrance’. According to the research, as the time passes, more students in Seoul are admitted to Seoul National University(SNU), the best university in Korea, than the the students in the other districts do. Except Gyeonggi-do, the number of the the students who entered SNU in other districts reduced. Moreover, majority of the students in Seoul are from Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu and Songpa-gu. These administrative areas are the places where the educational institutes and the venture companies are gathered. Therefore, many wealthy families live in these three administrative areas and the students could get more educational programs than the students in other areas. Further more, more students from the special-purpose high school were admitted to SNU than the students from the common high school do. The examples of the special-purpose high school are the foreign language high school and the science high school. Over half of the students from the special-purpose high school live in the administrative areas which are the zones of the overheated private education.
The situation does not change after the university entrance. As mentioned above, students who receive private lessons have higher college entrance rate. Mostly, these students are admitted to the prestigious universities. After the entrance, their tuition is paid by their parents and they do not have to do part-time work to earn tuition. However, poor students could not get the support from their parents, so, most of them seek the part-time job. In this situation, the students who are supported by their parents are relatively advantageous. They could concentrate on their studies and earn high credits. However, poor students could not concentrate on their study only and some apply for a leave of absence to earn the tuition. As a result, they could not get employed to the good companies and the passing down of poverty never ends.
Sources :
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201211052134475&code=940401
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201211052134325&code=940401
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201211062150375&code=940100
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