Good morning, fellow Koreans,

A couple of days ago, I visited Duksung Girls’ Middle School in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Shortly before that I read a news article about the school, which had once been shunned by the students and parents in the neighborhood but had been reborn as a very popular school in a matter of a few years. I wanted to personally see what had made such a turnabout possible. Among other things, two elements in this success story made me hurry there: first, the grades of students witnessed a significant improvement without recourse to private education. Second, behind this miracle lied the unreserved passion and self-sacrificing endeavors by all teachers, including the principal. That is exactly what I, as President, dream of seeing in all schools across the nation.

On the visit, I met with the principal Kim Young-suk, many teachers, students and parents. They all were brimming over with pride and happiness, which was almost beyond description. Among other things, one mother’s remarks hit home. She said that private education in English, mathematics and essay writing had cost her family over 1 million won a month, but now the after-school program has eased the financial burden and other problems as well. Thanks to the program, her daughter, who was suffering from stress stemming from the pressure of private tutoring, has regained her smile and seen improvements in her grades. She smiled brightly saying that her family budget has gone into the black for the first time since her marriage.

I was also impressed by a comment from one teacher, who is in charge of a third-year class. She said, “Teaching and spending time with students from dawn till late at night every day is sometimes physically challenging. Still, I felt greatly rewarded as a teacher when a student from a low-income family, who could hardly afford to attend private institutions, got accepted by the specialized high school she wanted with the help of after-school classes.”

I was truly happy as I saw the future of our education—and our country as well—in the passion of the teachers, the confidence of the students and the bright smiles of the parents who were pleased with such positive changes.

Of course, I understand that besides Duksung Girls’ Middle School, there is an increasing number of schools that are committed to shoring up the foundation of the nation’s public education in the face of the mushrooming private education market. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to those schools and teachers for their strong commitment. I hope such endeavors to uphold the nation’s education that promise a rosy future for our country will be disseminated to all schools across the nation. 

My fellow citizens,

The findings of the national assessment of educational achievement of elementary, middle and high school students last week clearly showed the current state of nation’s education as well as the directions it has to take in the coming years. It came as a shock to all of us that about 10 percent of middle school students in their third year and 9 percent of high school freshman were found to have underachieved in terms of basic scholastic abilities. To put it another way, one out of every ten students in those grades failed to receive a mark of 20 in a relatively easy test based on their textbooks. What surprised me even more was the fact that the small number of such underachievers at the elementary level shot up about five times at the middle and high school levels. This attests to the fact that the longer they were in school, the poorer they performed, which I believe constitutes a clear reminder of the reality of our nation’s education. 

Amidst such a situation, some hopeful signs were also found. A discrepancy in grades was found among neighboring schools with a similar education environment. In addition, some schools in rural areas facing relatively poorer conditions outdid those in urban areas. I reckon that all these results are attributable to the hard work and efforts of the teachers and education officials concerned. My unwavering conviction in this regard is that the efforts of teachers take precedence over many other things that are needed for the advancement of education.

The national achievement test was carried out under the supervision of individual schools for the first time. For this reason, problems were reported at some schools. The Government will make a thorough investigation so that such problems will not recur in the future. Despite these incidents, it is necessary to have accurate evaluation data about students’ achievements in order to establish tailor-made academic policies. After reflecting on the problems that occurred this time, the Government will strive to come up with a perfect evaluation system by next year.

As President, I must make myself clear on one important point. That is that the genuine objective of education is to produce talented people. I am convinced that the primary goal of schools and teachers should be nurturing students into talented persons. Accordingly, I firmly believe that education and especially teachers are the most important sources of hope for the nation and the people.

In the wake of the announcement of the test results, I hope to see more and more competition of a good-natured kind take place among teachers for the betterment of education.

In the future, the Government will make sure that hard-working teachers are rewarded better. The schools that teach better than others will be given more support. The schools that give extraordinary attention to slow achievers will be given more support as well.

Fellow Koreans,

The talented people that we need today are not ones who do well in tests alone.  They are the creative ones whose thoughts are deep and broad.

Therefore, education should aim at producing intelligent people who consider the needs of others, who love their neighbors, and who are healthy and equipped with rich cultural sensitivities.

Viewed from this perspective, I definitely believe that the nation’s college admission system has to change. I expect to have opportunities to comment on the concrete direction and details of change another time, so today I would like just to suggest the general direction.

Autonomy of colleges and universities should be respected to the utmost. But the autonomy should be conducive to revitalizing public education instead of further promoting expensive private classes. To this end, the current system of selecting new students on the basis of test scores alone should be changed. Those who do not get very high scores but demonstrate creativity, good character and high potential to grow should also be allowed an opportunity.

In the light of this, the Government will provide universities with unreserved support to expand the use of specialized admissions officers so that admission practices will become more diversified and advanced. In fact, I understand that the Korean Council for University Education, comprised of university presidents, is already working actively on a plan to improve college admission practices through the augmentation of the current school information disclosure system, among other things. It is the hope of my Administration that by the time the current middle school boys and girls enter college, they would be able get admissions to the colleges of their choice without taking many private classes.

Fellow Koreans,

The nation will not find talented people in the absence of good education. We will not have a promising future in the absence of talented people. Educational reform is the most important task thrust on us now.

In just 50 years, the Republic emerged as one of the 10 biggest trading nations from its existence as one of the poorest nations in the world. We were able to write that history of a miracle thanks to our education. In the same manner, I want to see Korea evolve into an even more proud nation in the next 10 or 20 years on the strength of its education. I urge every citizen to join their strength and wisdom in this endeavor.

Thank you very much.