Shrinking of High School VE and Restructuring and Quality Improvement of Junior Colleges (1980s) 12)

Korean education of the 1980s was characterized by the rapid expansion of university education (see [Figure 3-3]). The number of university students more than doubled from 402,000 in 1980 to 1,040,000 in 1990 and the university entrance rate rose from 27.2%

in 1980 to 33.2%. As of 1990, the middle school entrance rate and the high school entrance rate were 99.8% and 95.7% respectively. The high school entrance rate rose 11.2 percentage points from 84.5% in 1980. The education conditions of elementary and middle schools improved, and the number of students per class for general high school

fell from 59.9 in 1980 to 53.6 in 1990. For the same period, the number of students per teacher decreased from 33.9 to 25.4. In particular, the number of students per teacher in middle schools decreased hugely.

[Figure 3-3] Entrance Rate (1975-95)

The graduation quota system was introduced by the July 30 Measures for Educational Reform in 1981. The graduation quota system was implemented for the purpose of promoting the qualitative enhancement of university education and easing the burden of excessive out-of-school studies and competition for university entrance. Graduation quotas were set for each university, department, and course. From 1981, the number of new students admitted was up to 130% of the graduation quotas (115% for junior colleges) with the expectation that the extra 30% of students would be dropped during their courses so that the graduation quotas would be met by the time of graduation.

However, when the system was actually enforced, many irrational aspects surfaced.

For instance, even when the number of students decreased naturally as some students took temporary absence from colleges or withdrew from studies voluntarily, some of the remaining students still had to be dropped from the colleges. In some cases, poor

performers who failed to obtain the required credits would continue schooling while students on other courses with higher scores were forced to drop out of the colleges.

The system was revised in 1983 to allow the autonomous designation of the dropout rate for each school year and the operating units of the graduation quota system, making it possible for colleges to take in new students flexibly for each department and course.

Women’s universities and medical universities were allowed to admit new students flexibly at 100-130% of the quota. The students who completed four years of university education were required to take the graduation qualifying examination. To ease the rigidity of the system further, transferring, postponed graduation, and other methods were also used. Ultimately, the university graduation quota system became no more than nominal and was abolished in 1987, after seven years of operation from 1981. The entrance quota system was revived in 1988. As a result, the university student quota, which was suppressed until the 1970s, was remarkably expanded. The graduation quota system did satisfy the social demand for university education and contributed to the equalization of opportunity for education. However, it also created imaginary demand for university entrance. The number of students retaking the college entrance examination decreased momentarily in 1981 and 1982 but started to increase again from 1983.

In contrast to the significant expansion of university education, government support for high school vocational education began to shrink in the early 1980s and, as a result, there was a serious shortage of skilled labor in the late 1980s. It was also suggested that the vocational high school quota be decreased by 20% since the country needed more technical professionals and research manpower in high-tech industries than it did skilled manpower(technician).

The university student quota expansion policy and graduation quota system, which were enforced from 1981, increased the imaginary demand for university entrance and

schools became relatively less attractive. The number of students in vocational high schools grew at an average annual rate of 10.4% in the 1970s. The growth rate continued to decrease from the early 1980s and reached the average annual growth rate of -0.03%.

The decline was more visible among male students. In the 1980s, the number of male students decreased by an annual average of 1.62%.

Government support for vocational high schools decreased hugely from the early 1980s. The ratio of the total budget of the Ministry of Education spent on vocational education decreased from 4.1% in 1979 to 3.4% in 1988. In particular, the vocational high school support budget decreased continuously from 20.2 billion won in 1980 to 12.4 billion won in 1987. Specially, the vocational industrial high school support budget decreased significantly from 16.2 billion won to 5.9 billion won for the same period.

As government support decreased rapidly, support from other external organizations was also reduced. Scholarships funded by private organizations, which used to make up more than half of all scholarships up until 1980, dropped to 32.3% in 1989. In addition, the host of benefits, including the preferential treatment of vocational high school graduates for entrance to universities in the same fields, was reduced significantly and, as a result, vocational high school education shrank considerably.

While the number of students in vocational schools decreased, the number of students in general high schools increased continuously. The ratio of vocational school students among all high school students fell from 41% in 1981 to 32% in 1989.

As the industrial structure became more focused on high-tech industries, the ratio of highly skilled workers with four-year university education or more increased (see <Table 3-4>). Demand for medium-skilled workers with junior college education and skilled laborers with high school education or less remained high. However, the shortage of

unskilled laborers continued regardless of the economic cycle, and the inadequate investment in technical education in the 1980s became one of the reasons for the structural supply-demand imbalance in the Korean labor market.

<Table 3-4> Number of Students Entering Institutes of Tertiary Education and Average Annual Growth Rate of New Students

by Gender and Period of Tertiary Education Quota Policy (1963-90)

(Unit: persons, %) Junior college University

Male Female Male Female

Enrollment policy of higher education

Period of

1^st enrollment quota suppression

1963 6,649 3,274 15,512 5,078

1972 9,266 4,598 29,335 12,368

Period of

partial expansion of enrollment quota

1973 11,711 6,032 31,461 13,204

1980 57,892 22,728 86,726 29,029

Period of enrollment quota suppression

1981 75,844 30,472 132,069 47,866

1984 63,519 40,666 137,643 66,927

Period of 2^nd enrollment quota suppression

1985 64,371 44,112 113,604 65,730

1990 70,569 60,101 120,215 76,182

Average

1963-72 3.8 4.7 7.3 10.4

1972-80 25.7 21.0 14.5 11.3

1980-84 2.3 15.7 12.2 23.2

1984-90 1.8 6.7 -2.2 2.2

1963-90 9.1 11.4 7.9 10.6

Notes: ‘ - ’ is not available

Source: <Table 2- -4> in Kim (2004)

While the general universities expanded rapidly in the 1980s, the number of junior colleges actually decreased because of the junior college reorganization policy which came into effect in 1982 (see [Figure 3-4]). The ratio of junior college students among the number of students in all institutes of tertiary education increased from 17.2% in 1970 to 26.9% in 1980, decreased to 17.4% in 1985, and then increased slightly to

[Figure 3-4] Ratio of Junior Colleges among Institutes of Tertiary Education (1970-95)

(Unit: %)

As the rapid expansion of junior colleges in the 1970s caused many problems, including the deteriorating quality of education and increasing job shortages for graduates, the government established basic directions for the reorganization of junior colleges in 1983. The government sought to discourage competition between junior colleges for securing new students by reducing the number of junior colleges, the number of courses, and the student quotas to adequate levels (the graduation quota was reduced from 104,570 to 84,000) and to improve the quality of education by encouraging universities to concentrate on their strategic courses. However, no reductions were seen in health, nursing, agriculture and fisheries, marine junior colleges of sound management, junior colleges established or run by industries for manpower development purposes, and courses related to IT, early childhood education, tourism, and women’s education, all of which were key strategic courses required for the industrial society.

While reducing the number of junior colleges in accordance with the basic policy, some junior colleges were reformed as four-year universities according to the student quota expansion policy for four-year universities.

The government also requested the cooperation of government ministries and government-invested institutes. It became compulsory for Korea Electric Power Corporation and six other government-invested` agencies to hire a certain ratio of junior college graduates. The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education made it mandatory for local government authorities to employ junior college graduates. The Ministries also supported the securing of highly qualified teachers in order to improve the quality of junior college education. The employment rate of junior college graduates rose significantly from 28.2% in 1981 to 48.5% in 1989, the rate of securing teachers (compared to recommended ones) increased from 50% in 1980 to 60% in 1985, and the rate of securing facilities improved from 70% to 89% for external facilities and from 59% to 75% for internal facilities.