We should try to copy Korea's success

Prepared by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Pisa is one of the world’s most recognised educational rankings. It shows how 15-year-olds in participating countries are doing in reading, maths and science. In the top five are also Finland, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.
I know these countries did not get into the best ranks by chance. There is a lot of effort behind such impressive successes and indeed Thailand’s Education Ministry should not rest till it has made a similar effort.
In 1953, the Korean War ended. During the 1960s, South Korea was still a poor country. But today, South Korea is a leader on many fronts, according to McKinsey Global Institute.
Its recent report recognised South Korea as a global leader in shipbuilding, LCD screens, mobile handsets and memory chips. South Korea is also the world’s fifth-largest automaker. The heads of both the World Bank and the United Nations were born in South Korea. K-pop and Korean pop culture have also swept Asia and are known around the world, the report pointed out.
How could South Korea rise to the forefront so fast? The answer very likely lies in its educational policies.
According to the McKinsey Global Institute’s report entitled “Beyond Korean style: Shaping a new growth formula” (April), South Korea has spent massive money on education. Its college entrance rate was the highest in the OECD in 2011, at 71 per cent of secondary school graduates, compared with 64 per cent in the United States and 56 per cent across the OECD nations.
The nation also performed extraordinary well in Pisa. South Koreans secured first place in computer literacy, second in reading, fourth in maths and sixth in science in 2009.
Thanks to its great educational policies and services, South Korea has produced one of the most highly educated labour forces in the world. It has a high number of engineering graduates, at 3,555 per 100,000 in 2011.
Backed by its quality human resources, South Korea has prospered. It has excelled in heavy industries including electronics and automobiles. Its economic growth has allowed it to invest even more in infrastructure and human resources.
From my viewpoint, South Korea’s educational and economic policies have walked hand in hand.
So, it’s time for Thailand to start doing the same thing.
The Education Ministry, in trying to achieve educational reform, should not forget to include the economic perspective. Good education must deliver much more than academic content. In the increasingly competitive world, good education must serve the economic goals of a state too because none of the impoverished countries has adequate resources to support good education.
Yet, while I highlight how South Korea’s education successfully drives ahead its economic prosperity, I definitely don’t ignore its darker side.
The McKinsey Global Institute found that South Koreans are so preoccupied with the need to get quality education that tutorial classes are blossoming. Many parents pay for these extra courses because they believe the public education system does not prepare their children adequately for the rigorous university entrance exams.
The high cost of education is a clear factor in limiting family size and depressing the fertility rate. Just as parents are stressed out about working hard for money, a lot of which goes to their children’s education, their children are under pressure to excel academically. They have less time to play, as they have to study real hard to live up to expectations.
After graduation, with many highly capable people out there, South Koreans also feel obliged to achieve success. Anything less means they are failures.
So while South Korea has enjoyed good rankings academically and economically, there are signs of growing social distress, according to McKinsey.
South Korea has also seen the highest suicide rate in the world, according to the World Health Organisation. This includes students who broke down under the pressure to attend a top college.
So just as Thailand’s Education Ministry needs to look at how South Korea has impressively driven its economic growth ahead with a good educational policy and highly capable citizens, it also needs to take into account the social impacts and other factors.
In my opinion, educational reform here will be completely successful only if it can produce graduates who can make Thailand not just an economically sound but also a morally sound and happy society.

PRIYAKORN PUSAWIRO, Dr - Ing
Learning scientist
Computer Engineering Department
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
[email protected]