South Korea is stepping up its campaign against school bullying in the wake of a young victim’s suicide last week. A 15-year-old high schooler, only identified by his surname Choi, jumped out of his apartment home in the southeastern city of Gyeongsan last Monday after being bullied for roughly two years. His death — the second youth suicide in South Korea this month — has shocked the nation and called into question the government’s efforts to stop school violence. (via South Korea Rattled by Suicide of Bullied High School Student | TIME.com)
The UK’s education system is ranked sixth best in the developed world, according to a global league table published by education firm Pearson.
The first and second places are taken by Finland and South Korea.
The rankings combine international test results and data such as graduation rates between 2006 and 2010.
… successful countries give teachers a high status and have a “culture” of education.
![[SOUTH KOREA] … But South Korea, among the world’s most wired nations, has also seen its plan to digitize elementary, middle and high school classrooms by 2015 collide with a trend it didn’t anticipate: Education leaders here worry that digital devices are too pervasive and that this young generation of tablet-carrying, smartphone-obsessed students might benefit from less exposure to gadgets, not more.
Those concerns have caused South Korea to pin back the ambition of the project, which is in a trial stage at about 50 schools. Now, the full rollout won’t be a revolution: Classes will use digital textbooks alongside paper textbooks, not instead of them. First- and second-graders, government officials say, probably won’t use the gadgets at all. (via In South Korean classrooms, digital textbook revolution meets some resistance - The Washington Post)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1k8eijSh31qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
[SOUTH KOREA] … But South Korea, among the world’s most wired nations, has also seen its plan to digitize elementary, middle and high school classrooms by 2015 collide with a trend it didn’t anticipate: Education leaders here worry that digital devices are too pervasive and that this young generation of tablet-carrying, smartphone-obsessed students might benefit from less exposure to gadgets, not more.
Those concerns have caused South Korea to pin back the ambition of the project, which is in a trial stage at about 50 schools. Now, the full rollout won’t be a revolution: Classes will use digital textbooks alongside paper textbooks, not instead of them. First- and second-graders, government officials say, probably won’t use the gadgets at all. (via In South Korean classrooms, digital textbook revolution meets some resistance - The Washington Post)
[SOUTH KOREA] The country’s largest teachers’ group on Thursday visited the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to denounce the escalating investigation of teachers over allegedly lax management of student violence on campus.
The visit by the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association is expected to deepen conflict between the two parties over whether teachers bear sole responsibility for school violence that has been blamed for student suicides.
[SOUTH KOREA] Half of students in elementary and secondary schools in Seoul fail to interact with foreign assistant teachers as most of them do not understand what the teachers say in English, a study showed on Sunday.
The study was based on a survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on 43,742 students, parents, English teachers and foreign assistant teachers in elementary and secondary schools in Seoul.
![[SOUTH KOREA] Most South Korean students consider their final year in high school “the year of hell.” It is when all students are put to the ultimate test.
About 700,000 test applicants sat down in classrooms across the country Thursday to take their college entrance exams — also known as the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).
The stock markets opened an hour late, buses and subway services were increased and police cars offered rides for students, all to ensure they made it on time. (via South Korean students’ ‘year of hell’ culminates with exams day - CNN.com)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv8hu3gbEf1qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
[SOUTH KOREA] Most South Korean students consider their final year in high school “the year of hell.” It is when all students are put to the ultimate test.
About 700,000 test applicants sat down in classrooms across the country Thursday to take their college entrance exams — also known as the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).
The stock markets opened an hour late, buses and subway services were increased and police cars offered rides for students, all to ensure they made it on time. (via South Korean students’ ‘year of hell’ culminates with exams day - CNN.com)
On a wet Wednesday evening in Seoul, six government employees gather at the office to prepare for a late-night patrol. The mission is as simple as it is counterintuitive: to find children who are studying after 10 p.m. And stop them.
In South Korea, it has come to this. To reduce the country’s addiction to private, after-hours tutoring academies (called hagwons), the authorities have begun enforcing a curfew — even paying citizens bounties to turn in violators. (via South Korea: Kids, Stop Studying So Hard! - TIME)
An elementary school built by South Korea opened in Rwanda last week, ready to provide education to hundreds of young students, a state-run institute here said Tuesday. (via http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110315000658)
