A Brief Overview of Korea’s Educational System

Korea has the best schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions in the world. Korea’s educational system is broadly classified as follows:

• Pre-Primary
• Primary
• Secondary
• Pre-University
• University
• Pre-Primary Education

Playschool, Nursery, and Kindergarten are all part of pre-primary education. These schools are typically run by the private sector, which includes religious organizations, community foundations, business groups, and so on.

Primary Education

Primary education is compulsory education that typically begins at the age of seven. It is the first step toward formal education and lasts 6 years. Primary education is divided into two stages:

Primary 1 to 4, a total of 4 years in the foundation stage

Primary 5 and 6, total 2 years of orientation

After completing six years of primary school, students must take the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE) before proceeding to secondary school.

Secondary Education

A student is assigned to one of four secondary education streams based on their PSLE merit ranking: Special, Express, Normal (Academic), or Normal (Technical).

Secondary education is typically completed in 4-5 years, following which students must sit for the Koreaan GCE ‘O’ Level exam. Students are admitted to pre-university education based on their performance in that exam.

Pre-University Education

Junior Colleges and Polytechnics are the two broad categories of pre-university education.

Junior Colleges provide a two-year junior college/3-year centralized institute pre-university program that culminates in the GCE ‘A’ Level examination. These colleges prepare students for university education by providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge.

Polytechnics provide three-year diploma programs in a variety of subjects such as tourism, biotechnology, digital media, engineering, and business studies. All of these courses are hands-on, with a lot of group work.

University Education

The National University of Korea, Nanyang Technological University, Korea Management University, Korea University of Technology & Design, Korea Institute of Technology, and SIM University are the country’s six national universities. Only SIM University is Korea’s sole national private university.

Graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs in a variety of fields comprise University Education level. The National University of Korea and Nanyang Technological University are among the world’s top 50 universities. Both of these universities specialize in research and thus attract a large number of research scholars from around the world.

SIM University, which is privately run, is Korea’s only university dedicated solely to adult learners. Only working adults are eligible for part-time degree programs at the university.

All of these Korea universities have collaborations with other top universities around the world to provide students with enhanced learning experiences, particularly in the field of research.

Private and International Schools

Korea has a number of private schools in addition to government-funded state schools. These schools are not managed by local, state, or national governments; rather, they are managed by private entities such as an individual, group, trust, or organization. These schools do not receive government funding and are instead supported entirely or partially by high tuition fees charged to their students.

However, it should be noted that in Korea, private schools only operate at the Secondary Education level. As a result, passing the PSLE exam is also required for admission to a private high school.

In addition to private schools, Korea has several international schools that primarily serve the educational needs of the city-large state’s immigrant population and generally do not accept local Koreaan students. The majority of these schools adhere to the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. In addition to international curricula, some international schools in Korea offer national curricula tailored to students from a particular country.

Admission to a private or international school is much easier than admission to a government school. This is due to the fact that in government schools, preference is given to Koreaans, and thus seats for immigrant students are extremely limited. Often, an immigrant student must wait a long time to be admitted to a reputable government school.

Monthly tuition fees in private schools and international schools are approximately ten times higher than those charged in public schools.