It’s just one tragedy in a country where suicide is the leading cause of death among teens, and 11- to 15-year-olds report the highest amount of stress out of 30 developed nations.
A relentless focus on education and exams is often to blame. For a typical high school student, the official school day may end at 4 p.m., but can drag on for grueling hours at private cram institutes or in-school study hall, often not wrapping up until 11 p.m.
“Every high school, they do this,” high school juniors Han Jae Kyung and Yoon Seoyoon tell NPR.
A student completes her workbook at study hall. (Elise Hu/NPR)
The 14-hour days in classrooms reflects South Korean society’s powerful focus on educational achievement.
“The overriding impression was just a level of intensity I had never experienced at all,” say Tom Owenby. He spent five years in Seoul, teaching English and AP history classes. He’s now a professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin, but his Korean experience is hard to forget.
“It’s not about finding your own path or your own self as it is about doing better than those around you. It’s in many ways a zero sum game for South Korean students,” says Owenby.
Everything here seems to ride on a single college entrance exam — the suneung — taken in November. It’s so critical that planes are grounded on test day for fear of disturbing the kids.
Results determine which universities students can get into, and since there are as few as three colleges considered top tier by future employers, the competition is fierce and the stakes are sky high.