[Editorial] FTA Era Not Friendly to Strict Regulations on Education

President Roh Moo-hyun stressed that, “If we fail to protect the ‘Three No Policies’ (which prohibit the grading of high schools, college entrance examinations independently administered by universities, and donation admissions), the educational system in this country will face a great crisis.” Roh added that, “With a less competitive educational structure, we surely see this nation developing into one of the best countries in the world.”

However, this remark is quite contradictory to a speech he made stressing the importance of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), saying that, “It is impossible to gain competitive power without being engaged in competition.”

The Korea-U.S. FTA is a very meaningful step because it will spur Korea-U.S. trade, as well as open new a new era of competition and market opening. This is a stepping stone to more progress. Apart from institutional reform such as deregulation, fostering highly qualified human resources and providing well-developed educational courses are prerequisite elements in the competition with the U.S. We should keep the Mexico case in mind; due to a lack of qualified human resources, Mexicans failed to develop high value-added businesses despite the advantage of a North American FTA.

Under the current government educational policies that even suggest the types of writing tests, it is impossible to predict the increase in college competitive power. Even though President Roh said that, “The world’s top 10 Universities don’t operate independently designed college entrance examinations,” they are neither subject to such strict regulations from their governments. Of the top 10 universities selected by Newsweek, all but the University of Cambridge (UK) (sixth place) and the University of Oxford (UK) (eighth place) come from the U.S. The U.S. allows a great deal of autonomy to universities and doesn’t have specific policies on the operation of universities. Considering the fact that the number of Korean students studying in the U.S. has reached over 100,000, it is quite frustrating that the Korean government only focuses on strengthening school control and believes that will make everything fine.

President Roh also said that, “Universities in Germany, France, and the U.K. are also subject to government control.” However, currently, these schools are under criticism for generating unemployment problems and losing competitive power due to government control. Roh also said that, “The advanced countries don’t classify high schools according to competence.” However, that is not true. For example, European countries with well developed educational systems such as Sweden and Finland make announcements on the level of student achievement in each high school to help parents and students. The U.S. itself regulates high schools that show low achievement rates.

It is a big problem that President Roh just deals with education as a mere means of strengthening his stress on “equality.” Even though President Roh said, “Let’s make our society a place in which unqualified persons have equal opportunities,” this task should be carried out not by universities but by public lifelong educational institutes. The quality of education can be remarkably improved by applying economic principles to our educational system. Under the government regulations on college education represented by the three prohibition policies, it is doubtful if we can produce the talent that will lead the era of the Korea-U.S. FTA and who can work hard for this country.