[Editorial] Inadequate Science Reform

In the seventh curriculum reform, science was not able to shed the vestiges of the past. The Ministry of Education did not take into account social requests to “separate science and reinforce science education.” The science matter was merely patched up by increasing class hours per week allotted to science for first-year high school students from three hours to four. A look at the six selective-course groupings for second- and third-year students shows that math and science are still grouped awkwardly together with technology and home economics in the “natural technology” group.

Students who wish to study the humanities or social sciences in college are not required to select any subjects among the natural sciences starting from the second year of high school. Students in the science division can also gain admission to science and engineering majors when applying for college without studying physics or chemistry in depth. In fact, of science and engineering college freshmen nationwide, 29 percent selected subjects from social sciences, not natural sciences, and 55 percent did not study calculus and probability/statistics in mathematics.

Korea is moving in the opposite direction from countries such as the U.S., Japan, U.K., China, and India, which stress mathematics and science education. It is not surprising that the results of a math test conducted by the Seoul National University on natural science majors from nine universities showed an average of 28 out of 100. The test consisted of problems selected from middle and high school textbooks.

Businesses, and consequently the people, will suffer from the results of poor science education. Vice-chairman Kim Ssang-su of LG said, “Basic sciences are important in order to make it possible for businesses to survive in global competition, but we are experiencing many difficulties (due to lack of qualified individuals).” The basic sciences decide the future of a nation. The growth that Korea has achieved so far is largely due to science technology. However, what hope is there if we neglect science education before crossing the threshold of becoming a truly advanced country?

Such poor curriculum reform was caused by the fact that the Ministry of Education lacks strong determination for a far-sighted national policy and is easily influenced by the group egotism of teachers of certain subjects. Korean education has already lost much of its global competitiveness due to the anachronistic ideology-worshipping of the Korean Teachers & Educational Worker`s Union and the “equalowzation” (equalization + lowering) of public education. Under such circumstances, will our people be able to survive the limitless competition of the world?