Educational authorities in South Korea have stripped eight elite private high schools of their licenses on 8 July. This decision is part of the government’s effort to bring equality to the schooling system in South Korea.
According to representatives from the education office in Seoul, these high schools did not manage to meet the performance and achievements criteria set for educational institutions in the country, which is why their licenses have been suspended. The government issued a performance test to check the success rates of schools, with a passing score of seventy points, which the eight schools did not manage to achieve.
Such performance tests are a requirement for private schools in South Korea, and each institution has to go through the examination every five years, to keep its licence.
Regular high schools
The consequence following a failure to pass the performance test is an immediate suspension of the school’s private institution status. This means that these schools will no longer benefit from the autonomy private high schools have.
The suspension of this license means that the eight high schools will not be able to benefit from a more lax policy regarding funding and curriculum requirements. While the suspension still has to be approved by the Ministry of Education, there is little to no doubt this will happen by the end of the week.
Independent private high schools were first introduced throughout South Korea back in 2002, and since then the program has expanded significantly. However, after a change in the governing party, the requirements for such schools have increased, which is now causing a lot of their licenses to be withdrawn.
Private schools form a significant per cent of educational institutions worldwide, and their importance is undoubted; however, the standards they have to meet must remain the same as those for state-owned facilities.
