Similar to the student who quit Korea University last year, a student at Seoul National University made a dramatic drop-out recently for much the same reasons. At the end of the article we learn that they may not be alone.

Original article in Korean is at this link.

Update: Although this article keeps the student anonymous, other articles identify her as Yu Yun-jong, who was a junior when she dropped out. The Kyunghyang Shinmun met her in a cafe in Hongdae for an interview. PRESSian took the opportunity to critically examine the whole education system.

“I am against the deep-seated educational discrimination in our society and the education system that believes in exam after exam.”

One Seoul National University student has caused a stir by withdrawing from school, citing the deep-seated educational discrimination in our society and an education system that believes in exam after exam.

In the SNU student union on the 13th, there was a hand-written poster reading “This week I withdrew from school…” under the pen name “Revelation” and claiming to be a sociology major, the student wrote that “The reason I am withdrawing from school is the issues of education fever and competition for university admissions.” It introduced the author’s activism in high school for a student movement to eliminate the university entrance system.

The author went on to write: “The problem of college fever and university admissions is having a negative effect on university education and the issue of rising tuition is also related to this fever and excess demand… I want to demand that our society take action against all of these problems, including discrimination on the basis of educational ability and the school you come from.” The poster then says: “But when you go to university it gets even worse, as now you feel repulsion about your identity as an ‘SNU Student’ and that makes it hard for you to stay in the university.”

The author then wrote: “Everyone, please think about what it means, socially and politically, to be a student or alumni of SNU, about the competition for university entrance, and whether the education society and university education are really positive.”

Reactions from SNU students range from “courageous” and “reminds of the Korea University student Kim Ye-sul, who quit school, and the conscientious objector Kang Ui-seok” to “didn’t this person benefit from the university entrance exam?”

One professor at SNU said: “In fact, many students come to me and ask for help with these problems, so many SNU students really are conflicted about their identity… They have been told that if you just study hard then everything else will work out, but now many students are seeing the tuition debate and other issues and asking if to get a job all you have to do is study. Society tells them that it’s great to go to these respected SKY schools and it will guarantee them for life, but in fact many SNU students don’t believe that at all. So they are conflicted.”

From 2008 through to 2010, some 341 students withdrew from SNU, another 161 failed to enroll, and 28 interrupted their studies, for a total voluntary withdrawal of 530 students, a previous study has found.