[Opinion] Responsibility for the Education Gap

Song Ki-chang, Professor of Education at Sookmyung Women's University

Social interest in educational disparities has increased due to COVID-19. According to a survey by the Korea Education and Research Information Service last year, 79% of teachers perceived that educational disparities widened because of remote classes caused by COVID-19. The main reasons cited were differences in students' self-directed learning abilities (64.9%) and whether parents assisted with learning (13.9%), with most attributing the causes to student ability and family background. Teacher-related factors, such as limitations in communication between teachers and students (11.3%) and lack of remote education content (1.4%), accounted for only 12.7%.

This is the reality of education. Teachers recognize that educational disparities have increased but do not believe the responsibility lies with themselves. The same applies to schools, metropolitan and provincial offices of education, and the Ministry of Education. They only consider equal opportunity and fairness of the system. This alone cannot resolve educational disparities. Capable students can learn well under any circumstances, and parents with economic means can provide various resources such as private tutoring.

There is no doubt that learning ability and economic power are the most important factors causing educational disparities. However, if the cause of educational disparities lies with students and parents, what is the reason for the existence of schools and teachers? Even under COVID-19 circumstances, responsible teachers should have responded that over 50% of the cause of educational disparities was due to poor communication methods and lack of content. Dan Lortie, an American education scholar, criticized in his book The Schoolteacher that "teachers take pleasure in excellent outcomes but try to avoid poor results." This points to the behavior of teachers who feel pride and fulfillment from the spectacular success of a few students but ignore the failures of the majority who do not succeed.

Looking at the expenditure performance of metropolitan and provincial offices of education or individual schools related to projects aimed at resolving educational disparities is absurd. The expenditure item related to resolving educational disparities in metropolitan and provincial offices of education is a sub-project called ‘Academic Achievement Improvement’ under the policy project ‘Teaching-Learning Support.’ The expenditure for the ‘Academic Achievement Improvement’ project in 2019 was 139.2 billion KRW, which is only 0.17% of the total expenditure of 80.4011 trillion KRW. Even if the project related to resolving educational disparities is expanded to the ‘Teaching-Learning Support’ policy project, the expenditure amounts to only 4.8716 trillion KRW (6.06%). This level is embarrassing to claim as an effort to resolve educational disparities.

In school accounting, there is a sub-project called ‘Resolving Educational Disparities,’ but its detailed projects only include various student support expenses such as tuition, meal fees, and after-school activity fees. While there are efforts to guarantee equal educational opportunities and resolve educational disparities, they do not go beyond that. In 2019, the expenditure on basic and selective educational activities in public and private school accounts was 6.3633 trillion KRW, which is only 25.45% of the total expenditure (excluding personnel expenses) of 25.0033 trillion KRW. Moreover, considering that more than half of this amount is covered by various beneficiary-paid expenses borne by parents, it is doubtful whether schools have the will to support resolving educational disparities and, furthermore, teaching-learning activities.

Although disparities in input due to individual ability or economic power are inevitable, teachers and schools should make more efforts to reduce disparities in outcomes through the educational process. Educational authorities should develop programs that encourage teachers’ efforts to reduce educational disparities in classrooms and provide budget support. They should also change teacher evaluation systems so that teachers feel responsible and make efforts to reduce disparities. It is a time when the interest, effort, and sense of responsibility of educational authorities, schools, and teachers are desperately needed to resolve educational disparities.

Song Ki-chang, Professor, Department of Education, Sookmyung Women’s University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.