Korean education ranked 32nd in world

The quality of the learning environment and contents of instruction in Korea ranked very low, although the numbers of college admissions (including two-year colleges) and university graduates stand at the top in the world.

Korea`s ranking in overall national competitiveness remained unchanged at 28th place from last year out of 49 countries. In terms of corporate efficiency and social infrastructure favorable for doing business, it fell to 31st from last year`s 27th.

According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2001 released by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) placed Korea 32nd in competitiveness of education. It showed a drop of six notches from 26th last year, when the competitiveness of human resources was reckoned into the heading of education. Except in some quantitative indexes, South Korea lagged behind in most categories.

In elementary schools, one teacher of Korea is responsible for 31 pupils (ranking 41st) compared with 10-20 in advanced nations; one secondary school teacher takes charge of 26.9 students (ranking 42nd).

Weakness was found to be evident in the quality of education in particular. Korea was ranked 47th in the capacity of university education to satisfy the needs of a viable economy, 36th in ensuring adequate supply of qualified engineers to the labor market and 19th in the degree of collaboration between businesses and universities.

Korea topped the world only in the rate of college admission, tying with another country, and ranked fifth in the number of residents who have received higher education, accounting for 34 percent of its population aged 25-34 -- the two other categories in which it stood close to the top.

The IMD said the management environment and competency of Korea to boost its corporate competitiveness is becoming similar to those of Japan, mired in a drawn-out recession, sliding to a level that could hardly compete with such major rivals as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia.

Only the government efficiency of Korea rose from last year`s 33rd place to 31st, in contrast to such other areas in which Korea languished as the achievement of economic activity, efficiency of corporate management and social infrastructure. It slipped several points in the latter three.

Korea was graded near the bottom in terms of price control by the government (49th), stability of the financial market (45th), guarantee of confidential banking transactions (47th), overseas competition among venture businesses (40th) and social equality of opportunity (45th). Ranked 44th in environment for corporate management, Korea was classified as a nation where it is not good to do business.

The IMD blamed the failure of Korea in economic recovery on the absence of a clear vision and transparent principle, saying: ``Had it implemented a market-oriented restructuring on the strength of its economic dynamics by the first half of 2000, it could have achieved an advanced economic system different from that of China, Malaysia or Thailand, while the new economy of the United States was going through its correction phase following good times.``

The list of national competitiveness was topped by the United States and Singapore, while Hong Kong jumped to sixth place from the 12th last year, with Japan descending to 26th from last year`s 24th and China to 33rd from 30th last year.

The private institute, with headquarter in Lausanne, conducts annual surveys of leading corporations and entrepreneurs the world over to determine the comparative competitiveness of nations in its diverse aspects.

Park Won-Jae parkwj@donga.com