"Isn't Three Days Four Days?"... How Is Your Literacy? [Heo Midam's Youth Report]

"Why is 3 days called 'Sahcheul'?"... Last year's 'Sahcheul' Debate
National Literature Reading Rate 43%... Average Literature Reading Volume 2.3 Books
Mom Cafe "Worried Because Kids Only Watch YouTube"

A citizen is hurrying on their way to work while reading a book. Photo by Asia Economy DB.

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[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Recent survey results have raised concerns that literacy among adolescents is declining. Literacy refers to the ability to read and understand text. This appears to be a phenomenon caused by the widespread use of digital devices such as smartphones to view video media and short texts. In the past, reading was often done to obtain information, but recently, as other content such as YouTube has been increasingly used besides books, literacy has been declining.

Given this situation, there are concerns that 'functional illiteracy' is increasing. Functional illiteracy means being able to read and write Hangul but unable to understand complex content.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) released a research report on the 31st of last month analyzing and comparing the OECD's '2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)' results focusing on top-ranking countries (Korea, Singapore, Estonia, Japan, Finland) with those of 2009.

PISA is an international assessment conducted every three years by the OECD, and in Korea, the Ministry of Education and KICE assess the performance of 15-year-olds (third-year middle school students). Last year’s assessment was postponed due to COVID-19.

The research report shows that Korea ranked first (539 points) in reading among the analyzed countries in 2009, but in 2018, it ranked fourth (514 points) among the five countries.

In particular, Korean students were found to have difficulties with complex text reading. The correct answer rate for 'literal meaning representation,' which is the ability to understand the meaning of sentences literally to find necessary information, dropped by 15 percentage points over the past nine years to 46.5%, showing the largest decline among the five countries.

A citizen is reading a book. The photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Last year, low literacy was also a hot topic. In August of last year, the word 'sahul' (three days) ranked first in real-time search terms on online portal sites. At that time, August 17, following Liberation Day, was designated as a temporary holiday, allowing a three-day break including the weekend. When many media outlets reported it as a 'three-day holiday,' some netizens responded, "If you say you rest for sahul, doesn't that mean resting for four days?" and "It's three days, so why say sahul?" Sahul is a pure Korean word meaning 'three days.'

Literacy is developed through reading and the process of communicating with others. However, as the younger generation increasingly accesses video media such as smartphones and tablet PCs, the amount of reading has naturally decreased.

Relatedly, a survey showed that only 4 out of 10 citizens read literary books. According to the '2021 Literary Status' survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, as of 2020, 43% of the population had experience reading literature, with an average literary reading volume of 2.3 books.

As a result, parents with elementary school children are even more worried. There are concerns that children, growing up accustomed to smartphones and video media, may experience a decline in literacy.

A parent of an elementary school fifth grader shared on a mom caf?, "My child is going crazy watching only YouTube. Even if I keep nagging and scolding to stop, they only listen temporarily and then try to watch YouTube again."

They continued, "I bought books hoping to cultivate a reading habit instead of YouTube, but my child doesn’t even glance at them. Now they don’t do homework from the academy and just want to watch YouTube. What should I do?"

Meanwhile, KICE emphasized the importance of reading. The institute analyzed, "The achievement level in the reading domain has been continuously declining according to the PISA periodic trend analysis," and added, "A social phenomenon to consider alongside PISA results is the increase in students’ smartphone use. As students spend less time reading books, literacy is gradually decreasing."

They further suggested, "It is necessary to prepare differentiated reading education plans. Various levels of books should be stocked in classrooms so that students can frequently access books and choose books that match their level to read in class."

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