The Korea Herald

소아쌤

S. Korea falls silent as students sit key exam

By Korea Herald

Published : Nov. 8, 2012 - 13:17

    • Link copied

Military training was suspended, flights rescheduled and emergency calls reserved for latecomers Thursday as hundreds of thousands of South Korean students sat a crucial college entrance examination.

As every year, the focus of the education-obsessed country narrowed for one day to ensuring the smooth running of the exam, seen as a defining moment that can hold the key to everything from future careers to marriage prospects.

Police cars and motorbikes in cities across South Korea were on standby, available for any students needing to make a late dash to take their seats before the exam began at 8:40 am (2340 GMT Wednesday).

More than 668,500 students, 25,000 fewer than last year, took the day-long standardised College Scholastic Ability Test at 1,191 centres nationwide, the education ministry said.

Aviation authorities said 83 flights would be rescheduled to avoid noisy landings and take-offs during language listening tests in the morning and afternoon.

The stock market‘s opening and closing was delayed by an hour while many government offices and private companies opened late to ease rush-hour traffic so that students could arrive at test centres on time.

In South Korea’s hyper-competitive education system, high marks in the exam are essential for entry to top universities, which is in turn crucial to securing prestigious jobs.

News networks fell over themselves to offer recipes for lunch boxes to be carried by the students which are readily digestible and supposedly helpful for maintaining concentration.

Many stressed-out students spent sleepless nights before the exam as parents crowded churches and Buddhist temples to pray for good results.

In the southeastern city of Daegu, a 21-year-old student feeling the pressure of the looming exam reportedly jumped off an 18-storey apartment building to his death on Wednesday.

The crushing pressure on teenagers to perform well in exams is blamed for dozens of suicides every year that generally peak around the time of the annual entrance exam.

For nearly all their school lives, South Korean students study late into the night -- often at costly, private cram schools -- to stay ahead in the rat race for admission to top universities.

South Korean students prepare to take the College Scholastic Ability Test, a standardised exam for college entrance, at a school in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap News) South Korean students prepare to take the College Scholastic Ability Test, a standardised exam for college entrance, at a school in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap News)


<관련 한글 기사>

외신의 눈으로 본 한국의 수능 풍경?

한국에서 대학수학능력시험이 치러지는 11월 8일, 외신 AFP는 수십만명의 한국 학생들이 일제히 시험을 보는 것에 방해가 되지 않도록 군대의 훈련도 일시 중지되고, 항공 일정과 응급 전화조차도 일시 중시되는 현상에 대해 신기한 듯 보도했다.

’교육에 집착하는’ 한국은 모든 포커스가 수능 당일날로 모아지고 이것은 수능 결과가 미래의 직업과 결혼에 결정적인 영향을 미친다고 전했다.

경찰차와 경찰 오토바이가 아침에 학생들의 시험 지각을 막기 위해 대기하는 것, 이/착륙 소음이 오전과 오후에 있는 듣기 시험에 방해될까봐 83개의 항공 운항 일정이 재조정 되는 것, 증시의 개장과 폐장이 한 시간씩 미뤄지는 것, 정부와 기업들이 한 시간씩 출근을 늦추는 것 등의 진기한 풍경들을 소개했다.

또, 대형 포탈 사이트들이 수능 당일 수험생의 소화를 돕고 집중력을 높이는 레시피들을 소개하고 부모들은 교회와 절을 찾아 좋은 결과를 기원하며 기도하는 모습도 소개되었다.

수능 하루 전 대구에서 21세의 학생이 수능의 중압감을 견디지 못하고 아파트 18층에서 뛰어내려 자살한 사건도 같이 보도되었다.

AFP는 한국 학생들은 좋은 대학교에 들어가기 위해 학창 시절 내내 밤 늦게까지 비싼 사교육 학원을 다니며 공부한다고 전하며 이를 ’rat race’ (극심한 생존 경쟁)이라고 꼬집었다.

(코리아헤럴드)