Korean studies Education in South Korea

Pre-division period[edit]
Main article: History of education in Korea
The 18th-century Joseon School painted by Kim Hong-do
Education has been present throughout the history of Korea (1945–present). Public schools and private schools have both been present. Modern reforms to education began in the late 19th century. Since its early history, Korean education has been influenced significantly by Confucian values particularly in its emphasis of formal learning and scholarship through China more than fifteen centuries ago. Confucianism instilled facilities like governance of men by merit, social mobility through education, and the civil examination system based upon the system that was developed in China during the Tang Dynasty. As a result, written word and mastery of Chinese classics and literacy became the primary method in choosing individuals for bureaucratic positions, gaining them a respective social status and privileges.^[40]
The Joseon period was significant in shaping the dynamics and foundation of the Korean education system. Schools were established that ingrained loyalty, orthodoxy, and motivation for official recruitment into its students. The primary means to receive an education during the Joseon dynasty were through village schools (seodang; seojae) and through private tutoring. The seodang was the most common method of formal education in Korea until the late twentieth century. It was usually available only to a handful of neighborhood boys, starting at around age seven. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the role of official schools gradually declined with the emergence of private academies (seowon), which usually functioned as rural retreats and centers of learning. The majority of them were closed in the 1870s in an effort to centralize authority.^[40]
Preparing students for competitive examinations were pronounced during the Joseon dynasty as a means of social mobility and selection of official positions, and remained a basic tenet in Korean education throughout its history. This extreme emphasis on education and meritocracy was contrasted by hereditary aristocracy during the Joseon dynasty, where bloodlines and kinship were particularly pronounced. Due to Confucian influences, education was able to maintain a fairly equalizing presence over society because of its belief in each individual being capable of benefitting from formal education and achieving enlightenment.^[40]
Education was dominated by the exalted scholar-teacher relationship, where teachers held almost a sacred status and were seen as a principal source of ethical counsel. This convention engendered the tradition of remonstrance, which obligated the scholar to criticize the actions of the government and even the king in order to avoid threatening the Confucian-inspired concept of the moral order of the universe.^[40]
The dynastic period did not prioritize special or technical training, and thus a preference for a non-specialized and literary education has remained in Korea. Many of these developments were pronounced towards the end of the 19th century when the Joseon dynasty began implementing a Western-style education system as a result of the intrusion of foreign powers into Korea. By 1904, public education was largely confined to Seoul, which was generally resisted by the public as well as government officials. This maintained the dominance of seodang and other traditional institutions as the primary means to receive a formal education. As a result of financial support from members of the royal family and American missionary activities and schools, the number of schools began to increase in the early 1900s. As a means to promote basic literacy among its citizens, Korea introduced a mixed script of Hangul and Chinese characters into its instruction.^[40]
During the Japanese occupation (1905–1945), Korea was able to establish a comprehensive and modern system of national education, through centralization and deliberate planning to integrate Japanese occupational professionalism and values. However, there were severe restrictions like the lack of access to education beyond the elementary level for Koreans, and the manipulation of education to indoctrinate Korean subjects to be loyal to the Japanese empire. This led to turmoil and discontent among Koreans who were forced to assimilate. The Japanese emphasized low-level and non-professional track schooling for Koreans. This was pronounced by the Educational Ordinance of 1911, where Japanese residents had fourteen years of schooling available, while Koreans only had eight years available to them. If Koreans were civil servants, eleven years education was the maximum.^[40]
Schooling was primarily based on Japanese values, literacy, and history as an attempt to make young Koreans loyal to the Japanese state and indirectly wipe out Korean culture and history. As a minor development, the Educational Ordinance of 1922 was enacted, which reopened the Seoul Teachers' School, extended elementary and secondary education, and added college preparatory or advanced technical training to the curriculum.^[40]
Higher education became a central issue for upper-class and upwardly mobile Koreans, who were provided very limited access to these institutions as well as positions of administration and teaching. With the introduction of the Educational Ordinance of 1938, Korean schools were to be identical to Japanese ones in organization and curriculum, which made education a highly militarized and regimented tool for forced assimilation and militarization.^[40] These last few years of Japanese rule pronounced the discontent of Koreans, whose social and political climates had been deeply affected.