Schools in South Korea and Finland 1

Academic Pressure in South Korea, Equality in Finland

Education is an all-important thing for a nation to survive or thrive. Those who invest

heavily on it and are able to develop a fine-tuned education system, make great headway in

science and technology. It ultimately empowers a country's economy and defense. To be able to

reach this level, different countries have different attitudes. For example, in South Korea (as well

as in Japan and many other countries) students are put under tremendous pressure to get the best

out of them. On the other hand, Finland gives students (especially at school) a freehand, so that

they perform in the pink of perfection. In the United States, the education system is to an extent

is not defined: either too tough in some cases or too lenient. Therefore, it is need of the hour to

make education an easy-to-get without compromising quality and dept.

In South Korea, the environment is very strict for the students. They are brought up in an

environment where education is the matter of life and death for them. The students have pressure

to perform well. That is why the school administration does not allay or get lenient when it

comes to study and grades. This pressure is further hyped up by parents who expect their

children to be at level where they are. For example, when Margaret Warner, the news reporter in

Seoul describes the life of a student who is bound to study all day, has his parents serving as

doctors. It means this is the minimum threshold of success for the 16 year old student. The other

major issue that has created this, to my mind educational suffocation, is sworn-rivalry with North

Korea, a failed state with a highly advanced warfare machinery including atomic bombs. This is

a lurking threat the South Korea and they feel they cannot survive, if they let their students to

waste time in listless activities.

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This environment on the one hand, offers great dividends because in nation's 15 years old

student rank, South Korea ranks 2nd in reading and 4th in math, in contrast to the U.S. which has

ranking of 17 and 31 respectively. On the other hand, there is high suicide rate in South Korea. A

credible source reports that recently two students committed suicide and dropped a message,

"We hate school". Suicide is of the leading causes of death in South Korea. This can be

compared with Finland, which performs well but students are not put in straitjackets. There,

normally a student spends 4 hours a day unlike in South Korea or even the United States where a

student is almost engaged in school work all day. There is no space for recreational activities in

South Korea and no different is the case of the United States. Although, it is a far-fetched

comparison between the U.S. and Finland but it is not without a reason. Even though Finland is

smaller than most of the 50 states of America (just over 5 million folks) yet it is advisable to

emulate Finnish education system. It is since the environment that leads to depression or stress

will never produce great scientists or innovators. The students have their right to have a life of

their own. Success must lead them to death or any mental illness.

I believe the education system of South Korea is a great success because such a tiny

country is one of the most powerful economy. It has brought innovations in the field of

information technology and has created giant IT companies. But their education system is not an

ideal one to emulate. The United States does not need worry about its defense or next door

neighbor like North Korea. The education system in the United States must offer the students

some space. Otherwise, the environment of suffocation and inundation will choke their creativity

to death. Finnish education system is also incompatible. Finland is a small welfare state while the

United States is the strongest economy and the mightiest military with many adversaries.
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Therefore, it has to keep education system somewhat strict but not the way it is now, hard-to-

handle for the students. A balanced education system is only way of salvation.