What is hagwon? This is a symbol of South Korea's passion for education.

What is a hagwon?

Hagwon (학원) means a private academy. Any private academy where people learn something can be referred to as a hagwon; however, it mostly conjures up the image of a cram school that caters to most students, ranging from elementary to high school students. In particular, math and English hagwons are in high demand. Hagwons are not only for slow-learners who have difficulty keeping up with their regular classes in school; some are specialized in teaching advanced curriculum taught in high school and college. Other forms of private education are also popular, such as gwa-oe (과외, one-on-one private tutoring at home), and in-gang (인강, an abbreviation for 인터넷 강의, literally translated as online classes, but I'd like to describe it as an online version of the cram school).

Why do students go to hagwon?

The reasons are complicated. Most Koreans view superior academic performance as a sure way to climb the social ladder, and also achieve materialistic success. In addition, Korean parents tend to derive satisfaction and happiness from their children's success. This element of Korean culture encourages students to regard excelling in school as their only source of validation and self-worth. Besides, many parents put unrelenting pressure on their children to outperform in their classes. As a result, school classes become extremely competitive, and students are inclined to seek help from cram schools to get ahead of others.

A typical day of a Korean high school student

Kim is a high school senior. He woke up at 6:30 AM and arrived at school at 8:00 AM. After seven periods, he came home around 5:30 PM, had dinner and rested for a little while. He went out to math hagwon. It took about thirty minutes to get there by bus. After two hours of math class, he came home around 9:30 PM. He wanted to rest, but he had to do homework (both from school and math hagwon). He managed to sit at his desk and roughly finished it, but couldn't review all that he learned that day. It's already 12:30 AM. He hadn't had any free time until then, so he wanted some time to relax and unwind. He picked up his smartphone and watched YouTube videos. He went to bed around 1:30 AM.

A high school student's life is especially tough, because a life-changing exam, suneung (수능, standardized national college entrance exam) is waiting for them. High schools normally start at 9 AM and end at 5 PM. According to a report by Statistics Korea and the Korean Ministry of Education, an average of 53% of high school students received private education in 2018, spending an additional 5.3 hours on study during weekdays. Considering the amount of time required to do homework, review what they learned, and recharge, their free-time seems insufficient. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a Korean high school student had an average of 5.4 hours of sleep per day in 2018.

Limitation and impact of current hagwon culture

Even though it is a widespread practice to attend cram schools, only a small proportion of students can benefit. As cram schools focus on skills to get high scores on standardized tests, they teach how to find the correct answers quickly. There's no consideration for helping students to develop their ability to think and solve problems. Promoting the academic interest of students is not their primary job, either. If a student can't motivate and enlighten themselves to establish their problem-solving skills, they won't benefit from hagwons. They will eventually experience a hard time in higher education and won't be able to pull their weight in the real world. I've witnessed many students who aimlessly attended cram schools for a long time without any visible improvement.

Nevertheless, many parents pay through the nose for their children's tuition. According to Statistics Korea and the Korean Ministry of Education, each household with students spent an average of 321,000 won (about 260 USD) per month on a student to get a private education in 2018. However, it's an underestimated figure because it included families of students who don't (or can't) receive a private education. There are some areas infamous for intense education, such as Daechi-dong in the Gangnam district, Mok-dong in the Yangcheon district, and Junggye-dong in the Nowon district. The amount of expense spent on a high school student in these so-called "Meccas of private education" is usually over 1,000,000 won (about 800 USD) per month because each student attends a few different hagwons. Wealthier families don't mind splurging on cram schools, but this is a huge financial burden that ordinary parents have to bear not to let their children fall behind. Such a high cost of private education is even counted as one of the factors discouraging people from having a child.