[Editorial] Half Complete Independent Private High School

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources announced the five independent private high schools which will have autonomy in admitting students and setting tuitions. However, the Ministry`s announcement is disappointing in terms of its quality. Only three schools out of five will begin next year, and no school in Seoul, Kyonggi, and Inchon is included. The independent private high school was originally planned to improve the bad effect of standardization system. However, these schools are not appropriate to achieve the original purpose since the schools, located in the non-standardization areas, are already selecting the new students.

The launch of the independent private high schools was minimized because the superintendent of education in Seoul did not recommend any one school among 19 applied schools due to the `revival of senior middle-school student disease`. The new plan for the independent private high school is not even a large-scale reform, but only an experimental introduction. The narrowness to refuse such an experimental plan is deplorable. The total number of 30 schools, including one or two schools in each city or province, should have been tried according to the original plan in order to have various experiments prior to the full-scale introduction.

Everybody is aware of the bad effects following the transformation of the middle school into the entrance examination institution for the high school when the standardization system is introduced and the craze for the private tutoring. People admit that it is a very dangerous attempt to break the basic frame of standardization when the given condition is not fully ready. However, it is necessary to expand the diversity and specialization of high school education in order to correct the downward tendency of the precocious due to the standardization. Although there exist science high schools and foreign language high schools as exceptional education institute, there are not enough of them to meet the people`s demands.

20,000 elementary, middle school, and high school students leave for abroad every year to receive better education. The immigration for education will increase if the government does not take measures that allow the alternative to the standardization system, which suppresses the creativity of the precocious.

Education, which tends to fit the precocious into the standard under the name of equal education, will bring about the backwardness of the nation. The national competitiveness is dependent on the number of the excellent precocious in the knowledge-information society.

Some of the education organizations oppose to the independent private high schools because they are the revival of `elite high school for the college entrance examination` or `aristocratic high school`. Every field should strain one`s wits to find an education plan that would nurture the creativity of the precocious connected to the national development strategies, while keeping a sharp lookout on the negative side effects of the independent private high school. Although it is a shabby launch, we hope that the five selected independent private high schools will be operated successfully to expand the societal understanding on the independent private high schools.