"Korean education is like a jungle. There is a lot of competition, you eat and get eaten", says Young Hwan Kim, an articulate 17-year-old with a dark blue school uniform and glasses.
It's a sunny Monday morning in Seoul. The trees wear autumn colours and an older man sweeps a park free from leaves. On the baseball field of an elite all-male high school in northern Seoul, a group of youngsters have just started an early physical education class. Beyond the neatly trimmed trees across the school yard reads the following sign: "Boys be ambitious".
Here, Kim and his classmates study between 8 am and 3:40 pm every day. Many stay to do homework until late at night - the library is open til 11 pm. Others go to private institutes called hagwons for evening classes. One of them is 17-year-old Inchae Ryu, who studies 12 hours a day, including homework and extra English classes twice a week.
"I have no time to think about my future or my dreams", says Ryu.
All he has time for is to study.
Next November he will reach the finishing line. That's when he will take the feared Scholastic Ability Test (SAT), which determines which university he can get admission to. The most prestigious insititutions in Korea are Seoul National University, Korea National and Yonsei University.
"To get admitted there decides what you can do in life and who you can marry. It determines your future", Kim tells.
But now, critical voices are being raised about South Korea's educational system, which they blame for high stress levels, problems with bullying and the highest suicide rates in the developed world. According to the National Youth Policy Institute in Korea, one in four students considered committing suicide in 2012. Full story...
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It's a sunny Monday morning in Seoul. The trees wear autumn colours and an older man sweeps a park free from leaves. On the baseball field of an elite all-male high school in northern Seoul, a group of youngsters have just started an early physical education class. Beyond the neatly trimmed trees across the school yard reads the following sign: "Boys be ambitious".
Here, Kim and his classmates study between 8 am and 3:40 pm every day. Many stay to do homework until late at night - the library is open til 11 pm. Others go to private institutes called hagwons for evening classes. One of them is 17-year-old Inchae Ryu, who studies 12 hours a day, including homework and extra English classes twice a week.
"I have no time to think about my future or my dreams", says Ryu.
All he has time for is to study.
Next November he will reach the finishing line. That's when he will take the feared Scholastic Ability Test (SAT), which determines which university he can get admission to. The most prestigious insititutions in Korea are Seoul National University, Korea National and Yonsei University.
"To get admitted there decides what you can do in life and who you can marry. It determines your future", Kim tells.
But now, critical voices are being raised about South Korea's educational system, which they blame for high stress levels, problems with bullying and the highest suicide rates in the developed world. According to the National Youth Policy Institute in Korea, one in four students considered committing suicide in 2012. Full story...
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