This undated file photo shows students sleeping during class at a South Korean school. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 8 (Korea Bizwire) — With Princeton University professor June Huh becoming the first-ever scholar of Korean descent to win the prestigious Fields Medal, education experts in South Korea are pointing out the need to reflect on the country’s current mathematics education system.
The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation reported that among students who were classified as ‘below average’ in mathematics last year, 11.6 percent were third-year students in middle school and 14.2 percent were sophomores in high school.
Both groups have been expanding in the last five years.
What’s more, the ratio of students with a mathematics performance of ‘average’ or higher has plunged.
Among third-year students at middle school, the ratio dropped from 67.6 percent in 2017 to 55.6 percent last year. Among sophomores in high school, the ratio dropped from 75.8 percent to 63.1 percent during the same period.
The data indicates that fundamental education in math, as well as the layer of outstanding performers, has weakened.
Rep. Kang Deuk-gu of the main opposition Democratic Party reported in January that 11.6 percent of 1,496 elementary schoolers, 22.6 percent of 1,010 third-year middle schoolers and 32.3 percent of 1,201 high school sophomores have ‘given up on math’.
Mathematics is an important subject in South Korea’s college entrance examinations. The mathematics exam focuses on how many questions the students can solve in a limited time.
While the scope of the questions has been narrowed down, there are still highly difficult questions appearing on the exams and school tests, which continues to be a problem.
Experts point out the fact that South Korea’s current elementary, middle and high school education still incorporates a ‘vertical’ method of education, which encourages many to drop out of mathematics.
“Students start to dislike math because the questions are unnecessarily difficult,” said Ha Seung-yeal, a mathematical sciences professor at Seoul National University.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
