This winter, the drama ‘SKY Castle’, which was broadcast on JTBC, recorded the highest viewing rate ever. This drama became hugely popular. The topic of this drama was the overheated education system. In some ways, people could feel bored with this topic. How did this drama find success? The drama showed some families who tried to solidify their status   by secretly hiring university admissions coordinators for their kids to enter Seoul Medical School. Scandals that were shown in the drama are no longer happening only in dramas. That is why people are crazy about this drama.
  The drama showed our society’s negative aspects about education. High enthusiasm for education and competition is already happening continuously. Compared to the past, susi, which is a way to enter university based on a student’s high school scores, is taking a higher percentage in college admissions. That is the reason many new tactics like hiring coordinators   came up. Entering university with an expert’s help and managing one’s curriculum are no longer rare. Reading, volunteering and extra-curricular activities have become important. While managing these things for three years, the coordinators get 7,000,000 won monthly. Under an overheated education, families who want to give their job to their children so they can keep their position in society. So they eager to educate children and spend money on that. And the gap between the rich and poor becomes bigger and bigger. The opportunity is not same for everyone. The unfair admissions competition is making our society sick. Education critic Lee Bum said in the Hankyoreh, “Susi is not a problem itself. It is too hard to understand that subdivided and complex susi system. Complicated extra-curricular activities and school prizes press the students and parents. The Ministry of Education needs to make this system simpler.”
  In the drama, the main character, Kang Yesuh, became the top student of her school after using a leaked test paper. She got a list of expected questions from her coordinator. In Ye-suh’s scene, we can recall the Sookmyung Women High School case in 2018. A father who was a teaching director of a school leaked a test file and gave it to his twin daughters, who were first graders in his school. With that file, they moved from 121st to 5th and 59th to 2nd in the first semester. They committed the crime because school grades became more important than in the past. Now, they both have dropped out of school.
  In an overheated education system, people use expedient and illegal ways to enter prestigious universities. The drama made us think that this problem is no longer happening only in   dramas. Two issues show that susi is becoming important in education. The 2018 University Admission Criteria showed that the rate of admitting students by susi grew to 74%, and many more students have to enter university with susi. The whole three years is more important than the College Scholastic Ability Test. Therefore, private education became more expensive and sophisticated. People say this is not fair for everyone. Kim Hyun-ki, a graduate of CBNU, said, “I am the first generation of susi, and I entered CBNU with susi. I got interested in English in high school, and I studied hard and won a prize in a high school English contest. As a result, I could enter the university. I think susi is for students who are willing to study more deeply what they want. Schools also have to choose students who have passion on their major. The reality of entering school with some expert road map does not match with susi like in the drama.”
  The problems of the drama are not in fiction. This is in reality. Too many families and students are studying in this environment and struggling in this competition. Excessive school rankings and academic elitism make them obsess about admissions. Also, admissions criteria change once a year and become so complicated that students knock on academy doors every day and struggle for more information. Of course, wanting to enter a good school is not bad, but the unfair competition has to be stopped. The Ministry of Education announced that, in 2022, it would decrease the susi rate to 70%, but many people still say that the Ministry needs to fix the unfair structure. To stop this, the ranking of universities and the overheated private education must be stopped, and people have to think about the fair and real meaning of education.

By Lim Chae-won
cw39@cbnu.ac.kr