In South Korea, Cha Kil-young sings with famous actresses, works out of an office in Seoul鈥檚 exclusive Gangnam district, endorses brain-boosting drinks, and takes home an $8 million paycheck鈥攁ll in the name of teaching math to high schoolers.
Cha runs an online 鈥渃ram school"鈥攁 hagwon鈥攖hat helps students prepare for South Korea鈥檚 version of the SAT. of Cha and his fellow Korean 鈥渢eaching stars鈥� in the Washington Post describes the increasingly important role of such teachers in Korea:
The vast majority of teenagers here do a double shift at school: They attend normal classes by day but go to hagwons for after-hours study. Increasingly, online hagwons are replacing traditional brick-and-mortar cram schools. The hagwons have become a $20 billion industry.
The Korean education system regularly appears at the top of international rankings, leading the pack in everything from and to problem-solving skills and . Many critics, however, suggest that the country鈥檚 heavily test-focused system has its downsides.
In an August 2014 on the subject, Walt Gardner writes that Korean students are to report feeling content in school as their international peers, and that a report suicidal feelings. The Washington Post article on Cha notes that South Koreans themselves have concerns about the pressures on students but aren鈥檛 sure how to fix the problem:
Some politicians and educators are questioning whether things have gotten out of hand. But even parents opposed to this punishing system find it difficult to opt out鈥攖heir children complain that they can't keep up if they don't go to a hagwon.
But though long hours may be the norm for Korean students, Cha isn鈥檛 an average teacher, even by Korean standards. Regular school teachers in South Korea generally max out at a year by the end of their career, according to data from the Center on International Education Benchmarking. Granted, that鈥檚 $30,000 more than the OECD average, and South Korean teachers generally spend than teachers in almost all other developed countries. Still, it鈥檚 not hard to see why another hagwon star quoted in the Post article opines that 鈥渞egular school teaching has its limits.鈥�
Photo: Cha Kil-young (right) and actress Clara cheer on students in a about South Korea鈥檚 version of the SAT. Image from YouTube.