Carlos doesn’t Remember

Carlos doesn’t Remember

          Carlos is a one-in-a-thousand kind of genius, but he faced numerous obstacles in his way to success. Malcolm Gladwell discusses how the college admissions officers grossly underestimate the number of poor, prodigal students in America, and that many kids like Carlos grow up without ever given the chance to show their intellectual skills. I believe that the problem is much more severe in Korea.

          The private education industry in Korea is one of the largest in the world. Entire districts in Seoul are dedicated to private academies, or hagwons, and literally thousands of tutors visit middle-class kids to give exclusive lessons and tips. I don’t deny that the education craze in Korea has some benefits, namely the high levels of literacy and knowledge that Korean students possess. The great human capital is the powerhouse that drives the Korean economy, and led it to being one of the to 20 economies despite a noticeable lack of natural resources or capital. But the level of competition for prestigious high schools/universities is brutal. Students constantly try to gain an edge over their peers, studying more and more by giving up precious sleep. Parents spend much of their income on private education, hoping that the extra expense will hopefully be rewarded with the successful admission to SKY(Seoul National University, Koryeo University, Yonsei University).

 But only a few thousand students are admitted out of the hundreds of thousands. The rest are shunted to other, “inferior”, universities. The reason for such a classification can be blamed on the collectivist atmosphere in Korea. School relations, family connections, and even the place of origin is favored when huge conglomerates like Samsung try to hire new employees. They look after their own, so to speak. In such a situation in Korea, I feel like Carlos doesn’t really stand a chance.

          Suppose Carlos was born in a poor neighborhood in Seoul. He is immediately at a disadvantage, as most public schools would lack competent faculty members and equipment to educate students. While other students turned to other forms of educations like hagwons, Carlos cannot. Even if he could ace the school exams, most prestigious high schools require test results (TOEFL, TESAT, etc.) that are very expensive, even to middle class students. Therefore, Carlos cannot show his true capabilities to enter the schools.

Even if he manages to enter, how can he attend? The obstacles Carlos had excluded, Korean high schools do not have Financial Aid, and there are no government run programs to help Carlos. He would have to rely on non-governmental forms of aid. Suppose he was enrolled. Then he would have to fight with students, who received so much private education that they have already mastered the curriculum, even before they enrolled in high school. Furthermore, college admissions require a lot of financial capital and know how. Without consulting, without people who are willing to satisfy Carlos’s every need, the chances of Carlos ever getting to university is bleak.

          I’m not arguing that poor, smart kids cannot ever enter SKY, and succeed in escaping the ghettos. But given the social stigma, insane competition, private education, and the small number of students accepted, it would be one in a million, the kind of story you only hear about in books. “You can do it too!”, they seem to shout. But for every student who succeeds in overcoming the barrier, thousands give up in trying to show their competence.