"Wow, Korea is really doomed": Foreign media shocked as cram schools running 'exams for four- and seven-year-olds' face shutdown

\r\n
According to Financial News, the excessive private education craze targeting infants and young children in Korea, which has even shocked overseas academia, will now be subject to legal restrictions. From now on, so-called "level tests" at preschools and private academies that force very young children, such as four- and seven-year-olds, to take exams comparable in difficulty to school entrance tests will be completely banned.
The Ministry of Education announced on the 12th that an amendment to the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons had passed the plenary session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. The core of the amendment is to prohibit operators of private education institutes from administering their own evaluations or tests to recruit young children or to stream them into different classes based on ability. Violators will face suspension of business or fines.
The Ministry of Education explained, "Even oral exams may be interpreted as prohibited evaluation activities if they make young children nervous and negatively affect their physical and mental development or emotional well-being." However, once a child is enrolled, diagnostic activities such as observation and interviews to support educational activities are allowed, provided prior consent is obtained from the guardian. Detailed standards and procedures will be set by presidential decree. The amendment will take effect six months after its promulgation.
The private education industry targeting preschool children has long been cited as a prime example of excessive early competition. In certain English-focused academies in the Daechi-dong area of Gangnam District, Seoul, often described as the center of private education, classes for seven-year-olds use textbooks at the level of third- and fourth-grade students in U.S. elementary schools. As more parents enroll their children in English academies around age three or four, just after leaving daycare, the age at which children enter the private education system continues to fall.
Ministry of Education statistics show that the number of English preschools nationwide was only 615 in 2019, but surged to 842 by 2023. Over the same period, the number of general kindergartens fell from 8,837 to 8,441. In online parent communities, it has even become common to recommend the U.S. elementary school workbook "Spectrum Test Practice" as preparation material for entrance exams to famous English academies in the Daechi-dong area.
This situation in Korea has also been reported as a startling development in foreign media. The Financial Times (FT) in the United Kingdom wrote that "academic competition in Korea is driving half of all children under six into cram schools," and reported in depth on the reality of the private education industry for preschoolers, which has even given rise to new buzzwords such as the so-called "exam for four-year-olds" and "exam for seven-year-olds."
Previously, Joan C. Williams, professor emerita at the University of California, appeared in an interview with the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS). After being told that Korea's total fertility rate was only 0.78 in 2022, she put her hands on her head and exclaimed, "Korea is completely doomed." Experts in the field have analyzed that the abnormal intensity of private education fever directed at preschool children is one of the key factors accelerating Korea's extremely low birth rate, which is the most severe in the world.
hsg@fnnews.com Han Seung-gon Reporter