hankyoreh

A person walks through the Daechi area of Seoul, known for its private cram schools. (Baek So-ah/Hankyoreh)

By Yoon Hong-sik, professor of social welfare studies at Inha University

No one in the world is as serious about educating their children as South Korean parents. Admission to a university that requires high entrance exam scores (or a high GPA) signifies that their child now holds an important credential to live a successful life.

To be sure, not everyone admitted to universities with high entrance exam scores goes on to live a successful life — but it certainly does raise the likelihood of them living a financially stable life.

Because of this, South Korean parents use every resource available to them to send their children to universities that require high entrance exam scores. Here, there is no big difference between rich parents and poor ones.

According to the Bank of Korea, low-income households in Seoul spend on average no less than 27% of their income per child toward private education. If poor families are willing to do this, it seems fair to say that nearly all parents are staking everything they have on their children’s college entrance scores.

So does this strategy of wagering everything on scores translate into successful outcomes? Do people want their children to gain admission to universities that require high exam scores?

If the children fail to gain admission to those schools, or if their likelihood of doing so is slim, the children should not be blamed for “not studying hard enough.” It’s the parents’ fault.

Let’s be honest. It may be difficult, but the reality is that the surest path for students to reach those kinds of universities is by increasing their parents’ socioeconomic status. Don’t blame the kids.

Indeed, Korea’s central bank recently published a report stating that 75% of the difference between the top-earning 20% and bottom-earning 80% in admission rates to nationwide medical, dental, Korean medicine, and veterinary schools and eight top-ranked universities in Seoul came down to differences in the parents’ economic means, not the individual students’ capabilities.

Also, no less than 92% of the difference in admission rates to Seoul National University (SNU) between students residing in and outside Seoul was attributed to the parents’ economic means and the private education environment in their home region.

The Bank of Korea report is not the only one painting this picture. Among students admitted to the SNU law school, 65.1% came from high-income families in the ninth and 10th income deciles.

The background of students admitted to the SNU medical school is even more shocking: An examination based on the students applying for state scholarships shows that 80% of those currently enrolled are from families in the ninth and 10th income deciles. Since that percentage only reflects students applying for state scholarships, it is likely to be even greater if the scope is broadened to all students.

The Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, has jokingly told students that the most important decision in life is “choosing the right parents.” For people living in South Korea in 2024, his message is no laughing matter.

Here, it is no longer realistic to suggest that even someone born into a poor family can overcome all the different hurdles and live a better life than their parents simply by working hard.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that in South Korean society, it takes 150 years for someone to move up from low income to the average income. In other words, a South Korean born into a poor family in 2024 would need until 2174 to reach the average.

This state of affairs is one of the reasons that many people feel that society is becoming increasingly unequal and hopeless even as recent social indicators have shown improvements in income inequality and the relative poverty rate.

In such a society, what can we members of the older generation say to young people? Should we tell them to work harder to build a better resume? Should we inspire them with hope by telling them that one or two out of a hundred people managed to achieve upward mobility through hard work?

If every country in the world were like South Korea, we might just give in to resignation. But not every country in the world is like South Korea.

In Finland, just 6% of young people replied that their parents’ socioeconomic status was crucial for their own success. What accounts for this difference? 

Finland wasn’t always that way, and there’s no “equality gene” found only in the Finnish. That means that the dire reality we find ourselves in is one that we, the preceding generations, created. 

In a society where one’s parents determine your course in life, who would have any hope or expect innovation? All that’s left is waiting for the country to collapse. 

We may not be able to choose our parents. But we can make Korea into a country in which people actually want to live. In this era in which everyone’s losing hope, politics must put forth a sensible and realizable alternative to patrimonial capitalism in which socioeconomic status is passed down from generation to generation.  

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]