The Seoul Board of Education's new "Seoul Student Scholastic Ability Improvement Scheme" has much about it that parents will like, particularly the a new program that will have homeroom teachers assume responsibility for students with poor performances, reductions in class size, larger school libraries and more open access to libraries for students, parents, and the local community. If the plan to increase yearly the ratio of essay assessment and class transferability according to student level is carried out faithfully, then the right direction is being taken.
If the plan is going to be implemented smoothly there need to be certain conditions in place. The part about helping students lagging behind must be spared no effort and pursued with the mindset that it will determine whether public education is a success or failure. Most critical will be motivating teachers to be actively involved and maintaining consistency of policy. They will have greater responsibilities, and so there needs to be more of them and the superfluous distractions they have to deal with have to be reduced so that they can concentrate on teaching. Naturally there also needs to be increased support in the form of training and teaching material development.
When it comes to the de facto revival of standardized testing in elementary schools and the adoption of a system of graded assessment, however, the worry is that it looks like the country is returning to ranking students in one big line again. The board of education says it "collect data for use in improving teaching quality by evaluating accomplishment," but you wonder if that is really the case. The testing could be what turns children and parents into slaves to test scores and sends them out into the market for private tutoring. It could also turn classes into test preparation sessions. If the idea is to assume more responsibility for student performance on the one hand while pressuring students and parents over grades like in the past, then schools would be better with no plan at all. The same goes for the reintroduction of the grade level evaluations that were abolished with much effort. If the idea is to answer parents' curiosity about their children, then individual consultations should be enough.
Schools naturally need to work to improve student performance, but the method has to be educational. Parents, for their part, need to abandon the faulty preconception that test scores equal ability, and get involved and apply pressure so that all education that takes place takes place centered around our schools.
The Hankyoreh, 2 February 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Back to Ranking Students? |
