Human Capital Policies in Korea

Human Capital Policies in Korea

Prof. Ju-Ho Lee, KDI School of Public Policy and Management

A Response Article by Andi Kurniawan

Refer to statistical figure extended in presentation, it is very admiring that South Korea’s educational level has attained remarkable extent. The average years of schooling, average scores of reading and number of researcher show how Seoul is capable of competing with other developed countries, including Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, the certain quantity progress in education sector in fact is not parallel with the development of education quality.

Prof. Ju-Ho Lee employed some terms to describe this phenomenon, education bubbles and over education. Education bubble a phrase used to highlight the significant amount of spending in education motored by social and psychological motivation. Meanwhile, over-education a term used to indicate imbalance figure between number of school graduates and number of school graduates who are hired by industries. Colleges and universities then become popular destination for high school graduates.

Prof. Lee introduced an approach called education diversification to ameliorate this condition. It comprises a number of reform programs to enhance non-cognitive curricula and teaching methods in high schools and higher education. Prior to the reform, education system emphasized merely cognitive approach while ignoring the importance of non-cognitive skills. As the results, there has been a mismatch between education and industry needs and university graduates have been paid cheaper than their juniors from high schools. In addition, people spend much in private tutoring in order to attain higher scores and get enrolled in prestigious schools and universities (Lee, September 2014).

Among South Korean policy reforms in education are to change teaching and assessment methods by including creativity and character skills, to strengthen industry-university cooperation by supporting their specialization, to increase number of vocational high schools namely Meister high schools which are financially supported and securely find employment. To make these reforms work, according to Prof. Lee there are two main strategies, the first one is the crisis management strategy accommodating the prevailing crisis in particular related to the 2008 economic recession, and the other strategy is to open up the education sector by widening people and private sector participation in education institutions such as the assignment former top CEOs as school principals aimed at adapting the existing curricula with the industry demands.

As a student living in a developing country, I am very impressed with South Korea’s awareness of significant education role in development. Despite its economic miracle and well-developed education system, South Korea still considers the significance of education reform. However, I think education reform is insufficient to answer the prevailing crisis. Although it supports graduates to get employed easily, it is not same as providing people with equal economic opportunity. Educated in vocational schools or specialized senior high schools, graduates will only be workers, while top management who earns much profit and revenue remains controlled by families or relatives who are well educated. I assume this hypothesis needs further academic research, but the current figure shows how Korean economic is still dominated only by several conglomerates that we can name it.

In the case of Indonesia, we are still lag behind. Our current challenge is still how to distribute equally education development in provinces outside Java island. Albeit lawmakers have passed a bill requiring government to allocate 20 percent of State Budget for education, education development in rural districts remains questioned.  Furthermore, private sector participation in this sector is still merely concentrated in capital cities like Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. They have opened some universities specialized in business, management and some engineering studies. Since they are relatively new, their contribution to education development will need more review. The other key problem is we have less significant policy instruments to strengthen linkage between industries and universities. There are many good quality researches produced by public universities like University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology or Surabaya Institute of Technology which are unused due to this issue.

References:

Lee, Ju-Ho. (2015). Human Capital Policies in South Korea: Education Expansion and Bubble. A Presentation Material in South Korean Human Capital Policy Seminar Series. KDI School of Public Policy and Management. Retrieved from www.gdln.or.kr

Lee, Ju-Ho. (September, 2014).  Making Education Reform Happen: Removal Education Bubble Through Education Diversification. KDI School Working Paper Series 14-05. Retrieved from www.kdevelopedia.org