Do you agree or disagree with the planned closure of elite/autonomous Korean high schools?

 If you think of communism you may recall it is an effective theory because everyone under that system should be treated equally. However, it has been proven by many cases that the reality is different from the ideal. One of the main reasons of its failure is that people lose enthusiasm because no matter how much they put their efforts into something the pay-back prices are the same. I believe that the closing of elite/autonomous Korean high schools would influence in a similar way on students who would enter the normalized high schools that provide equal educations.

 Firstly, closing down elite/autonomous Korean high schools does not solve the problem of escalated private tutoring to young age children. I believe the only way to solve the problem is by changing the awareness of the whole society in Korea.

1)    It is harder to get into nice companies and get secured jobs due to high competitiveness in Korea. People think that if you get into elite/autonomous high schools, and later top colleges, you will be able to get into a famous company or earn a lot of money. Because of these false senses, students start to study advanced contents from young ages and this also leads to high stress rates, which slows down our society’s development.

2)    If the society’s atmosphere does not change and we only close down elite/autonomous high schools, the competition will move to regular high schools, and to get a higher score or a higher rank in the regular high school, students will receive a lot of private education as they are doing now. So, closing down elite/autonomous high schools will not be able to reduce private education.

3)    Even now, students in regular high schools located in Gangnam Strict, where high-price private tutorings are common, get more admissions to top-tier colleges than some elite/autonomous high schools. So, if closing of elite/autonomous high schools happens, more students born with gold spoons in their mouths will try to get into Gangnam areas  due to the so-called balloon effect. Then the private tutoring issue will continue and there will be no difference from just having elite/autonomous high schools.

 Secondly, we must respect the right of choice that students have. The right of choice that students have should not be infringed. They should be allowed to choose the school that they think is the most appropriate for them. For example, if they like English and they want to have a career related to it, they should be allowed to choose to go to foreign language schools where they focus on foreign languages. Students will be able to learn what they enjoy and they will also be able to develop their talents.

 Closing down elite/autonomous high schools does not solve the fundamental issue. I think that changing the awareness of the whole society is the priority, and students should be able to get diverse educations they want to get. Education is a farsighted policy, and a stopgap measure will not contribute to the fundamental solution. If there is a problem with elite/autonomous high schools, they should think of improving them, not just getting rid of elite/autonomous high schools. For these reasons, I strongly disagree with the planned closure of elite/autonomous Korean high schools.