YONHAP NEWS

Education Secretary calls on U.S. to benchmark S. Korea in education

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Wednesday called for his nation to benchmark South Korea in investing heavily in education to catch up with the tense international competition.

   Duncan told a forum here that the U.S. needs to seek a dramatic change in its education system, citing the conversation U.S. President Barack Obama had with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul last week.

   "I think the challenge we face boils down to a conversation the president had recently on a trip over to Asia," Duncan said. "The biggest challenge in South Korea, he (Lee) said, is that his parents are too demanding; his parents are asking them to do too much, too fast, and that somehow, even the poorest of parents expect the best education."

   The secretary also said that Lee "had to import thousands of teachers into his country, because every child in that country is learning English in the second grade."

   Duncan was repeating what Obama said Monday after a weeklong trip to four Asian countries, including South Korea, China, Japan and Singapore.

   Obama at that time attributed South Korea's successful economic growth over the past decades to Korean parents' enthusiasm for the education of their children.

   "I just want to mention the importance not only of students but also of parents," Obama said, launching a campaign for U.S. excellence in science, technology, engineering and math education.

   Obama mentioned the talks with Lee. "He said even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best education."

   Duncan said the question for the U.S. should be "how do we awaken our country to understand how critically important it is for our children to have a chance to compete -- for all of our children, particularly disadvantaged children, to have a world-class education?"

   "We have to get to the point where this is really being driven from the ground up, where communities are demanding dramatically better for their children," he said. "But until we get to that day, until we sort of awaken from a point of a complacency and apathy and acceptance of the status quo, we have to continue to push very, very hard for change."

   In March, Obama called for the U.S. to look to South Korea in adopting longer school days and expanding effective after-school programs for American children to help them survive in an era of keen global competition. He also lamented the high dropout rate among high school students, which has tripled in the past 30 years in the U.S.

   "Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year. That's no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy. We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day," he said. "If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America."

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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