South Korea looking to revamp education to boost innovation and growth

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From Business week, as South Korea’s growth has cooled to 5% annually over the past decade, from an average rate of nearly 8% during the prior 30 years, some experts are griping that Koreas educational system no longer makes the grade.

The country of 48 million now ranks 11th among the worlds economies and is a top exporter of everything from steel and ships to cell phones and computer chips. It spends 7.5% of its gross domestic product on education, a bigger share than any other industrialized country, and that figure doesnt even include the $38 billion a year Korean parents shell out for after-school cram sessions.

In the meantime, Korea risks losing some of its best and brightest. The number of the country’s students enrolled in foreign schools and universities rose to 214,000 in 2005, from 109,000 in 1998, the Korea National Statistical Office.

the call is for: “The Ministry of Education and Human Resources must be disbanded in favor of a much slimmed-down department focused on lifetime learning”

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