arta

Korea's impressive process in economic development in the past several decades is the result of mainly three elements. They are strategic economic development plans, concentration on increasing investment to human capital, and people's zealous aspiration to nation's reconstruction.

The marvelous achievement of Korea is the result of expansion of education opportunities to primary and secondary schools in 1960s and 1970s. From the late 1940s when the nation was liberated from the Japanese occupation, the Korean government placed policy priority on human resource development through education.

In 1960, Korea was even poorer than most of the destitute countries in the continent of Asia. For the six decades after the Korean War, the country stands out thanks to systematic development plans and solid policy intervention, and hardworking people. As a result, the average annual increase of per capita income was 6.8 percent thus accomplished remarkable social and economic development, having reached US$20,000 of average income per capita.

Education has been raised as one of the key policy agendas together with other social policies. Broadening primary education, after all, was not an alternative but a must.

There is categorization of development of education in Korea. Roughly, the growth age of primary education starts from 1945 to 1960. By 1959, 96 percent of the children who falls to compulsory inlframe the of schooling age were enrolled. Indeed, this was impressive achievement. In 1960s, almost 100 percent of children who are in the age bracket for basic schooling went school.

The development era has been characterized with great shortage of teachers and decent classroom facilities. For instance, most classrooms were jammed with 70 or 80 children. At times classes were overflowed with more than 100 kids in a tiny classroom.

Thanks to the egalitarian educational policy kids who completed primary school were able to enter secondary schools. By 1970s, parents could afford send their children to high school. Furthermore, high school graduates were motivated to continue their education and were able to grab university diploma for their final degree.

Access to higher education rose as the government promote establishment of universities across the nation. As of now more than 70 percent of high school graduates are enrolled in both regular 4-year universities and two-year junior colleges.

Despite the number of college graduates are on the increase, in reality, their job skills are by far fall short of the demands of industry. In Korea, one of the great challenges in human resources development is that college graduates are not able to meet the quality standard and societal demands.

Higher education enrollment has grown drastically in Korea over the past decades. The enrollment rate grew from a mere 11 percent in the 1980s to 70 percent in 2006, now reaching the world's top level.

In a 2002 survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries, university education responded for only 26 percent of knowledge and skill demands of the business sector, and it takes an average of two years to retrain underqualified university graduates.

In response to such criticism, the government has made it as a top priority to strengthen the quality of higher education.

Korea is situated in critical period for the achievement of per capita income of $20,000. In order to achieve the status of an 'advanced country,' Korea must set a new development strategy that places utmost emphasis on nurturing top-notch human resources.

The ministry has initiated rigorous university restructuring plan in August 2004 to address this challenge and raise the competitive edge of higher education. The plan was covered extensively by various formats of media over the year, and as a result, the Korean society has been able to reach a consensus on the urgency of university innovation.

The amount of higher education funding from the pubic sector also falls behind that of advanced countries. The percentage of Korea's public expenditures on higher education in comparison to GDP is about 0.5 percent, just half of the OECD average of 1 percent.

Of the total higher education budget, public funding takes up only 15.9 percent. Tuition fees, endowment, transfers from the boards in case of private universities, and other funding sources account for 84.1 percent. Tuition fees stands great portion of university budget which means that burden of household for higher education is too much heavy.

In order to upgrade quality of education and to reach education service tantamount to that of advanced countries what we have to do first is to boost budget allocations to education.

I was much fortunate to be able to pass the bill promulgating 20 percent of internal revenue to be subsidized to primary and secondary education. And, for fiscal year 2008, additional US$1 billion was secured to allocate to higher education programs.

Apart from the rural development plan initiated by the government in 1960s, the administration was desperate to ensure core high-technologies to economic growth. In order to smooth implementation of economic development plan and ensuring skilled workers the government attended to instituting technical education programs.

Indeed, both skilled and semi-skilled workers served rubricating the production line in many factories. They were the ones who are dedicated to build big conglomerates like Hyundai, Samsung, and Daewoo. These young folks were critical mass in human capital for the country to secure knowledge and skills in need.

Literally, technical schools were booming to rise to foster technicians in small and medium industries in 1970s as much as a shift from traditional farming to manufacturing industry gradually took place across the country. People were eager to acquire job skills and parents were determined to send their children to schools in order to escape from the poverty-stricken family that runs through generations.

People who graduated from technical high schools, having some work experiences in industry, returns back to school for further education. Education ministry facilitated to reentry to college by formulating due policy.

A particular sector which is important in terms of education policy yet receives less attention is military. In Korea, military service has been compulsory as young man reaches certain age and he should enlist in the army for about three years. For young men who did not have formal education of any kind, army camps provided literacy class and basic education.

Between 1950s and 1970s military provided 'modernized' training and taught life skills for youth from rural villages. By the time they were discharged from the military, they were ready to shift to work. The administration tapped into the human resources in the army service to fill out manpower shortage.

The ministries of education and defense have been collaborated in order to organize training provision in the military that run through decades.

The writer is Professor Emeritus. Dept. of Education, Seoul National University and is former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Korea. He can be reached at kshinil@snu.ac.kr

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