Guaranteeing Choice for Students and Schools: The First Step Toward Open Education

Our educational system has long suffered from a loss of vitality and a steady decline. Students seem to expect nothing from school other than a diploma. It has been a long time since schools were able to supply the workforce needed in industry. The reason is that high barriers built by vested interests and layers of regulation prevent students, teachers, and schools alike from breaking away from old ways of doing things. Trapped within a framework in which no one can truly win, they are unable to make the effort to transform themselves in step with changes in the world.

In the field of education, students and schools are groaning under a rigid public education system. Because educational programs are standardized, teachers are also unable to teach students freely and fully. Looking at the cause, the barriers to entry are high and there are too many compartmentalized regulations. Nothing can be properly changed under the coercion of the education authorities, and the system has effectively walled itself off from changes in the world.

Students have been stripped of the right to choose, and schools have likewise lost their choice. They are merely carrying out cramming-style education through a distribution model based on the outdated framework created by the education authorities. It is hardly surprising that children go to school to sleep. Forcing things on them that they neither need nor want cannot be called education. With not even the minimum degree of choice allowed, students have learned helplessness and simply lie down and sleep in resignation. The responsibility does not lie with the students or the schools, but with the education system and the authorities that enforce it.

The uniform education system that has persisted since the Japanese colonial period has not changed and remains captive to the logic of vested interests. Entry and exit are blocked, and a premodern, rote-learning model continues even in the 21st century. The world is at a moment of innovation in the age of AI. Educational systems around the world are undergoing major change and reforming themselves, yet our education authorities are interested only in protecting their own turf.

Political forces such as the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union also bear responsibility for the collapse of education. In order to turn schools into venues for spreading socialist ideology, they strengthened a centralized education model and stripped schools of their rights. They used this to impose their own ideas.

How, then, can vitality be restored to a stagnant educational environment? We need to correct flawed systems and regulations and make them less rigid. If the education system becomes more flexible, students and schools will have the incentive to strive for better results. Students should be able to choose their schools and curricula in the process of advancing through education. Different regions should be able to adopt different educational approaches, and schools should be able to choose better educational programs. Schools should also be able to choose which students they teach. We must move away from a culture in which, once admitted, graduation is regarded as an automatic right. The education system should be open enough that anyone who wants an education can receive one, regardless of age or academic background.

Education is not separate from the world. It must accept the principles by which the world operates. Everyone has the right to choose. The fact that education is a civic duty does not mean the government may arbitrarily impose its will by force. The people’s human rights, property rights, and freedom of choice are fundamental rights that must be respected even in compulsory education.

All systems related to schools should be put on the table and reexamined from the ground up. What the public now feels is that if education-related regulations were abolished altogether, students’ academic achievement would actually improve, and the cost would be far lower. That is how strongly our education system is seen as sacrificing students while wasting taxpayers’ money.

People pursue education in order to improve themselves. Education does not exist for the vested interests of education authorities and educators. If schools are protected in their right to choose and provide better educational methods for students, students will once again find hope in education and choose better forms of learning.

Sung-no Choi, President of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: 학생·학교의 선택권 보장, 열린교육의 첫걸음

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2022-06-21

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&idx=24814