Even more alienating to ordinary Koreans is the cutthroat rat race that characterizes the education system today. The case of Toronto-bound Kim Ki Hyun is typical. A civil engineer with 15 years' experience at a major Korean construction company, Kim had led a comfortable middle-class existence, with a family sedan and an apartment. I have not bought myself a new dress in two years. Unable to bear the burden of escalating costs, families like the Kims are heading overseas in search of better and cheaper educations for their kids.
Many experts blame standardized university entrance examinations.
Introduced more than two decades ago, the tests were intended to give all students a level playing field. Meanwhile, academic standards in public high schools have slipped as educating students took a backseat to preparing them for the entrance exams. Increasingly, getting accepted into a good university has become a function not of academic excellence but of the ability to pass the entrance exam which itself is often a function of how much money you have. The lack of a coherent government policy on education has not helped. In the past three years the country has gone through no fewer than five education ministers.