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Crisis of Schooling, a global phenomenon,
has recently emerged as a serious societal issue in Korea, as well.
One of the reasons behind such a sense of crisis that is unique
to Korean situation might be the fact that excessive competition
for college entrance dramatically increased students' dependence
upon private tutoring, which, in turn, has caused general disregard
of public education (school education).
Pre-class tutoring has spread all over Korea during the last few
years. Pre-class tutoring designates 'private education practiced
by non-formal educational institutions such as cram schools, which
offers learning of the school curricular contents at least one month
ahead of the school schedule.' Many Korean parents and students
believe that such pre-class tutoring will greatly improve students'
understanding of the curricular contents during actual classroom
lesson and give students an advantage in the competition for school
grade. Such belief is the key marketing strategy for the cram schools.
On the other hand, however, many teachers claim that pre-class tutoring
causes students to acquire inaccurate knowledge and hinders efficient
classroom learning ; they also complain that students who went through
pre-class tutoring tend to be inattentive during classroom lesson,
causing the general atmosphere of the classroom to deteriorate.
That is, the teachers believe that pre-class tutoring is the main
culprit of the schooling crisis.
Despite that pre-class tutoring spreads rapidly to the entire nation
and its effect on school education cannot be ignored, little about
its precise mechanism and effects has been studied. Therefore, this
article examines first, the general picture and short-and long-term
effects of pre-class tutoring and second, the strategies to discourage
pre-class tutoring and assist in educational innovation that fits
the Korean situation.
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