[The Editors' Verdict] A Country Where Science Is Taught Only Through Textbooks

[Asia Economy Jeong Doohwan, Content Manager] "This is the real strength that allows the United States to maintain its position as a scientific and technological powerhouse despite numerous challenges."

This is the recent impression of an acquaintance who stepped down from the position of CEO of an information technology (IT) company after visiting the United States. The place he visited was Chicago, Illinois. During his trip, he took time to visit the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), and this is his reflection. He said he felt a sense of bittersweetness there.

Opened in 1933, MSI is the largest "interactive" museum in the United States, covering an area of 57,000 square meters with 75 exhibition rooms. It displays the actual German U-505 submarine captured by the U.S. military during World War II. The museum is also famous for the story that the submarine was moved first for exhibition, and then the building was constructed over it. However, MSI is renowned not just for visual displays but as a living educational site where visitors can experience the past, present, and future of science and industry through various interactive exhibits.

What was the reason for his bittersweet feeling there? The answer he gave was, "I could see the future of science in our country, which is limited to reading and memorizing textbooks..."

Looking into the reality of science education in the Republic of Korea, his words are not an exaggeration. A recent survey by an admissions institution confirms this. According to the survey, from 2018 to 2022, a total of 1,006 students dropped out from four nationwide Institutes of Science and Technology (IST), known as cradles of science and technology. The institution also estimated that 80-90% of the students who left moved to medical fields.

The preference for medical schools is not a new phenomenon, but the mass dropout of IST students, more than half of whom come from science high schools, is not something to take lightly. Why is science being neglected like this?

The clue can be easily found in our elementary, middle, and high school education settings. When asked a student in Seoul about science experiments, the student said they had only done three science-related experiments in the third year of middle school. Once moving to high school, science classes effectively become textbook-dependent lessons rather than hands-on experiences. A university student majoring in electronic engineering confessed that they hardly remembered any laboratory classes during their three years of high school. This is a science-track student, not a liberal arts student. "Preparing for college entrance exams was so tight that there was no time to leisurely conduct experiments," they said. Memorization-based science education, which skips experiential understanding of principles and focuses only on results, hardly sparks interest or curiosity among growing students.

Earlier this month, President Yoon Suk-yeol emphasized at a talent development strategy meeting held at Kumoh National Institute of Technology in Gumi, Gyeongbuk, that "the driving force of national development is science and technology, and nurturing talent in this area is most important." Kumoh National Institute of Technology was established in 1975 by the late President Park Chung-hee, who declared "a rich nation and strong military based on technology."

However, creating a few related departments does not instantly produce tens of thousands of science and technology talents. In the reality where science education is neglected from the basic education stage, nurturing talent is like "climbing a tree to catch a fish" (an impossible task). The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has declared education, along with labor and pensions, as one of the three major reform tasks. Perhaps the most urgent reform for the country's future is education. Before discussing grand talent development in semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and other fields, reforms without fundamental considerations are nothing but "a sandcastle on the sand."

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