In real life, everybody I speak to agrees that the competition is totally out of control, causing misery to children and parents alike.
A businessman who works at a major South Korean company describes coming home to his son crying over maths homework at least twice a week. The boy recently asked his crestfallen parents if he had been born “just to do homework”, and told them he wished he had never been born at all. He is 10 years old.
PARENTAL DEMAND FOR AFTER-SCHOOL ACADEMIES
Past attempts to rein in private tutors and crammers in South Korea have only been partially successful. The hagwon were banned during the 1980s, but the prohibition could not be enforced in the face of irrepressible parental demand.
In 2008, the Seoul authorities introduced maximum operating hours for the academies – from 5am to 10pm. But five years later, there were still reports of pupils being bussed out of Seoul at 10pm so as to study at off-site locations until 2am, before returning ahead of an early school start the next day.
Ye-seul, 29, experienced the hagwon system both as a pupil and as a teacher, and then later as the co-founder of a new academy.
She says a “culture of shame” operates, as the blame for failing to meet unrealistic expectations is passed from parents to teachers to children, and back to parents.