(Book Review on Australian Education International (AEI), September 2007)

Diamond Dilemma, by resident Korean expert Tariq Hussain, is a new English-language publication examining Korea’s rapid economic industrialisation and related social issues, – including education, – and asks ‘what’s next?’. Read here for full article

The work was first published in Korean in 2006 by Random House Joongang. Australian education providers interested in furthering their understanding of Korea will find it an enlightening reference. Refer also http://www.diamond-dilemma.com/tt/eng/ for details about the book and author.

Hussain’s harsh, though always constructive criticism of the country’s education system is built on a deep respect for the country’s achievements to date, including in education. In Chapter 8, Hussain examines Korea’s ‘education miracle’, which he says has so far succeeded in producing the country's most valuable resource – its people and human capital – but is now in need of reform.

Unmasking this ‘miracle’, including its top PISA rankings, Hussain measures it against the ‘enormous input’ of resources. ‘No students anywhere spend as many years in school as they do in Korea (12.3 years, the highest among OECD countries); no country spends as much money on education, at 8.2 percent of GDP; no parents anywhere spend more money on the private education of their children, at 3.4 percent of GDP and more.

Hussain assesses that for Korea to continue to move forward, it needs to move away from its input reliant, top-down training tradition, which has been the backbone of its rapid industrialisation, and move toward what he terms ‘true education.’

Korean culture is heavily influenced by Confucianism and Koreans adhere to strict hierarchical relationships in today’s modern society. In this environment, students are discouraged from questioning their teachers. Such unquestioning acceptance of the ‘facts’ and emphasis on rote memorisation of ‘correct’ answers, stifles creativity and critical thinking skills, and results in a ‘well-trained but uneducated workforce.’

Foreign executives usually praise Koreans for their ‘discipline, dedication and hard work, the hallmarks of a highly trained workforce, but recognise four main weaknesses:

• lack of critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• lack of communication skills
• lack of diversity
• leadership gap

Hussain also describes Government influence on education, for example how in the 1970s President Park Chung-Hee used education to support his economic policy. Education became about ‘producing a certain number of students for specific subjects which could support the country’s industrialisation drive – schools and universities became the training grounds for Korea Inc.’

As industrial policy shifted towards electronics industry heads of universities would meet annually with the heads of the ‘chaebol’ (family run conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai etc.) to ask them about their expansion plans and how many graduates they would need. ‘Most subjects were highly regulated and entrance to university was controlled by the government. Careers became predestined, choices were few and students were classified the moment they entered school.’

Hussain notes that an increasing number of Koreans are swapping ‘training’ in Korea for ‘education’ overseas, including Australia, resulting in Korea having the worst education and university trade balance of all OECD countries (Australia he notes ranks top in its university trade balance ‘due to its explicit focus on building a competitive education service industry’).