Expert Info
on 17 Sep 2012
Hello,
My daughter is doing a project on South Korea. We are trying to find information on the typical daily schedule of a Year 5 primary school student including: what they learn at school, what they do after school, homework, homelife, food and what they do on weekends. She needs to compare the education and cultural lifestyle of a South Korean student (She chose South Korea as her Aunty, my sister, was adopted from Seoul back in 1986 ) the same age as herself to our education and cultural traditions here in Australia.If anyone has any information or contact emails we would greatly appreciate it.
Thanking you in advance.
Belinda and Jaimee
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I am an elementary school teacher in South Korea and from my experiences here I can tell you that the average South Korean 5th grader's school life is a lot more stressful then than most others kids' of the same age from around the world.
The main reason for this is that so much pressure is put on students by their parents to excel. Achieving top marks and winning awards is highly, almost unrealistically encouraged, and in order to achieve these high demands students, from a very younger age, spend the majority of their waking life with their noses buried in a textbook of some kind.
Grade 5 students start school at around 9am and will generally finish at about 3pm. After school the majority of the students attend a hagwon, which is a private academy that offers extra tuition. There are many different types of hagwons; math, science, art, English... and the types of hagwons the student attends will usually depend on what subjects the parents want their child to excel in.
Grade 5 students take Math, Science, Social studies, Korean, Music, PE and Art classes at school. They also usually study a musical instrument, most commonly the piano,violin or flute. The public school is system here is very good, and all the teachers at the school are dedicated and highly educated professionals.
Another interesting difference is that in Korean public schools there are no cleaners. After lunch in the cafeteria students are assigned different areas of the school to mop, sweep, dust and wipe. In order to help keep their school clean, teachers and students wear special indoor shoes that they change into as they arrive at school.
I hope this helps you... if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
Best,
Remy
Here's an interesting look at hagwons in South Korea from Time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2094427,00.html
You can also get some background information on education and schools in South Korea on the Expat Arrivals site. Good luck with the project! :)