School Swap: Korea Style, Episode 1 Full BBC Documentary 2016

[Music] what does it take to have the best schools in the world to find out three Welsh teenagers will swap their classroom teachers and even their parents to experience school life on the opposite side of the globe in Gangnam in South Korea here pupils work long hours teachers can become millionaires I don't yet walk and parents plow a small fortune into private tuition for their kids this is extreme education but South Korean schools are ranked for some of the best in the world I'm Sean Griffiths education editor for Sunday Times and next month the big news story will be the results from the international ranking system for schools known as Pisa according to international rankings our education system is so far behind that of countries like South Korea I want to know what would it take for Welsh schools to complete and be at the top of those rankings and to do that I need some help so for three days three Welsh teenagers will live and breathe Korean education to find out the secret to their success honestly can this is school swap korean-style st. Davids in Pembrokeshire is the smaller city in britain this is where i grew up and went to school here i got the grades to go to Oxford to study English and back then the quality of Wales's education system was renowned but something has changed so I won three students from my old school to help me find out what I'm sending them to want the best and toughest education systems in the world today South Korea I'm looking forward to experiencing it but I honestly don't know how they cope some days I'll only have two lessons in the morning or sometimes I have triple lessons at the end of the day so I can have a lion in the morning I do like the social part of school but I don't really enjoy the educational side of it some might say that I like my playstation a bit more playing sports and my friends a bit more than studying school for me is about yes you come along and you see your friends every day but it's also about a knuckle in down and actually get some work done I want to get the best I want to be the best and I think that all starts with education I want to go to career because I want to know why they they're doing so much better in education than we are and what they have that we don't three very different kids but how will they take to the super-tough system of South Korea everybody is our three Welsh teenagers are traveling 6,000 miles from Pembrokeshire to the capital of South Korea so [Music] for three days I've arranged for them to be totally immersed in Korean school and teenage life and they need to look the part to figure you will be cooking so first stop is the local school uniform shop hahahaha look like one most schools in this area are single sex schools so the three will have to split up Tommy and Ewan will attend dan cook an all-boys high school in the most affluent neighborhood in Gangnam the school is surrounded by expensive high-rise flats with Korean parents spending a fortune to move into the school's catchment mine's a very posh school and I have thing they're gonna be really strict Sara will attend the nearby all-girls school soo moon over 1,500 girls attend this high school and it's one of the best in Gangnam with strict rules on uniform and appearance our three Welsh students will also be staying with a Korean family but before they head off I want to know if they're ready for the challenge do you already know any Korean have you learnt any in a few hours you've been here well picked up a little bit I mean like cancer how many died is like thank you and Tommy knows the way to like introduce you so when you greet someone you say man you saw pan got some knee done so I'm useless I've been relying on these two okay well good luck all three of you often go Sarah Tommy and Ewan now split up and head off to meet the Korean classmates for the first time they know nothing about their host families and the nerves are definitely starting to show yeah bit nervous but uh should be good to meet them I think nervous doesn't quite cut it yeah here we go Sarah will be staying with 16 year old Seon when she was young Seon went to a school for gifted children and her favorite subject is maths that's all yeah and that's actually here meanwhile on the other side of town Tommy is going up in the world hello Tommy's Korean classmate is Min Jung he has a bird's-eye view of Seoul from his 36th floor apartment and there's an 86 inch television to amuse him oh got home soon oh wow that's really cool that's a lovely view as well um is the last to meet his Korean counterpart Jung Chan hello oh man I saw bigram Sunita there's no television here young Chan's parents believe it's a barrier to good education this is a really nice house you make the most of the space is well it's really good both our top students in their class and it's not long before they check out each other's maths homework and musical skills you [Applause] [Music] first impressions I don't know started Tansy's amazing you can play the piano backwards for Christ's sake I don't stand a chance finally here I'm finally here and it's crazy it's really good luck it is you know just tomorrow our three Welsh students are going to discover why Korean education is the toughest in the world what time does school start Hey alright okay yeah I talked to quite an early start bye sorry I think it's math English in history cut and then we're gonna have dinner at school and then we're gonna have like the extracurricular stuff you stay there until 8 10 10 o'clock at night in yes okay yeah I'm normally fast asleep but 10 o'clock but I think I can change for a couple of days I'm prepared for this [Music] 6:45 in the morning and in young Chan's house there's no sign of UN I'm ready no it's already like the other book what 7 sorry that's horrible over at Zeon's house it's a different type of wake-up call for Sarah over breakfast we have ass bang in each class for us super haunting but we have to give our phones in yes you know even just like allowed to turn the mountain for them yes you can but Griffin teach your finger don't take it for we can have till month yes it depends on the teacher they can take your phone off you for that yeah I did wake up and I just fell back asleep ready for school now right now might be out until 11:30 at night so be quite interesting while Sarah UN make their way to the respective schools over at minions house Tommy's only just getting up there usually function this time mm-hmm can I get better weather out here than we do much better this is like this is like actually quite a nice day to lunch I think I'll retire before lunch because Tommy got up so late his Korean classmate is worried I'm gonna be there on time I think he's never been late to school before I wasn't catch up don't worry in Dan cook high school punishment for missing the Bell is coming in even earlier to clean the corridors and classrooms with seconds to spare both have avoided mopping up duties for today at least Sarah is creating a bit of a stir over at Sumer and girls school being the only blonde in school can make you quite a celebrity I'm not gonna be awake until about quarter to eight strange too early it's ten to eight and first up its English and a gentle easing in for Tommy Ewan and Sarah I'm not very familiar with that all right I cut myself a machine this morning maybe mention the shower idea more than 99% of Korean students choose to stay in school after they turned 16 compared to only 50% back home in Wales for the next three years they prepare for a make-or-break exam to get into a good university while I wait to see if the kids survived their first day I've been looking around the local area and come across this Buddhist temple this sign is pretty interesting it's inviting people to come and do 3,000 vows or prayers overnight your Saturday for guess wat good exam results these mothers are praying for good results in the end of term exams each prayer-book as a picture of their child and on the roof of the temple the light stays on in the families Lantern until the child reaches University in the temple courtyard the mothers burn old textbooks to destroy any possible bad luck in the looming exams it is this religious devotion to education that has helped transform South Korea's fortunes 60 years ago nearly 80 percent of the population here was illiterate today South Korea is an economic giant they did all that through education so how good are they I've arranged a test for the boys in Bangkok school good morning today you're going to be sitting a Welsh GCSE maths exam you have 60 minutes and your time starts now it's usually a two-hour long paper but we've randomly selected half the questions to fit this exam into 60 minutes my maths exam Michael yeah I was told to be sir after only 15 minutes some of the Korean students have already finished the paper but even on his second attempt GCSE maths is still a headache for Tommy for my GCSEs I got to a star's forays for bees and there see I thought I did quite well considering the amount of work I did the only grade that I would have liked to get high also see in maths I would like to get that up to a beat but you know it is what it is okay so can I just ask you all can you put your hands up if you found that paper difficult okay so can I ask you now can you put your hands up if you found the paper really easy okay everybody found it really easy well that was really interesting none of those South Korean teenagers found that paper difficult mostly finished in about 15 minutes who's supposed to take an hour I'm not really surprised because the teacher said that paper was primary school level maths for those children it just shows how far we've got to go to catch up in Wales thousands of children in Wales not just in Wales across the UK would have failed that paper this summer that says a lot about where we are and how much we've got to do I asked them and they thought the exam was very easy and I said well some people in our class have failed that and they said what will that that's astounding so I just think they just work harder they go over it and then an exam they've never studied before before they just did it straight through so yeah amazing Korean teenagers are exam busting machines and among the top performing students in the world we know this because of the Pisa tests every three years fifteen year olds in 68 different countries sit the same exams in maths science and reading in maths Asian countries like South Korea consistently come out on top but in the last results in 2012 Wales was in the bottom third of the league 43rd out of 68 countries one obvious difference here is the long hours they put in Sarah is struggling to stay awake others have just given up but still the teacher carries on at least there's one similarity between Wales and South Korea they do have school dinners in Seoul all kids up to 16 years old have free school meals but you won't find any chips being dished out here Korean school dinners are hailed as some of the healthiest in the world plenty of rice soup and that friendly fermented cabbage called kimchi sort like a stewed sort of thing but there's lots to do and more meat and bags and stuff it's really tasty really tasty with their bellies full its back to the classroom and our Welsh students are actually getting a taste for Korean style lessons the method of teaching out here is they just give it to you in black and white and you memorize it and you learn it but that does not necessarily mean that you understand it what stuck out to me a lot is in class they don't even talk to each other it's just bizarre the school here is better in terms of the results but are they really living a life that a young person should be not so sure in response to such criticisms the principal at the boys school has introduced a school sports day to tackle the problems of stressed out and tired students this is one of the best schools in in Seoul and South Korea is at the top of the international rankings for education but do you feel that this kind of sports day is necessary to give them some kind of release from that pressure yep that's a part of the reason I do this with these kids because you know like this time never comes back you know like this a beautiful time of our life but you know they're kind of a like squeezed under like a big load of with pressure they're days probably like six to 12 or something six I am in the morning tomorrow 8:00 to midnight whoa secure you've got six out of sleep six hours sleep that's a very like this efficient so we've been seeing some children sleep actually nodding often in lessons what do you do when you see children doing that I was actually I kept a class I mean the wind over the classroom and I tried to wake them up I like it's like descending my fingle signal to them this is equal or - yeah isn't working yeah even truly probably that's gonna damage their like efficiency of the studies cuz they need a sleep they kind of like to sleep so that's the part of the reason we're doing this is kind of like some activities to releasing their stress the final event of the day is rope skipping and Tommy's been given the responsibility for swinging the rope for his team don't want to get it wrong look how many people are watching oh you know bro can you go [Music] next up it's Tommy's team [Music] [Applause] most of the Korean students don't know anything about Wales that's until they see the flag there's one famous Welsh footballer and everyone knows his name [Music] [Applause] 20 minutes past 4:00 and the bell rings for the boys over at the girls school the lessons may have ended but now it's time for after-school study ten hours in and Sara's sitting in the same classroom in the same chair I feel really bad but honestly couldn't keep my eyes open during that lesson it's all getting too much for Sara so her Korean classmate Seon comes to the rescue we're gonna get you to go to the nurse's office there are a lot of beds there so you can cigarette I feel so bad after that we can go to my extra credit class and then we go home ah Cobar going into the nurses room I should just I should be awake but I'm just so Dan really tired as night falls on Sol UN and young-chan make their way to a five-hour self-studying session in the local public library at the moment we are waiting to get into the library I was amazed that there could be so many people all in there at once and in fact they were exquisitely silent there was even kids in less than about 10 years old surprising but shows the work ethic that Korean people have an it's just impresses it's amazing studying for 14 to 16 hours a day is normal for young Chan this is his way of staying at the very top of the class I found that if you review your school works what you've learned on that day then it's it really helps you a lot so the library where I study near my house it only opens until 10:00 so if I want to study more and like finishing my work then I just come back to school and yes stay here until 12:00 my parents influence is the biggest part because my dad grew up in the countryside and he had a really poor backgrounds and he like study really hard and he made it into Seoul if he can do that I well um maybe I can like set it more but like second purpose is that it's really kind of happy when you get good results from like studying it's really not comparable with any other achievements yeah but what drives me to study when they're not self studying in libraries most Korean students go to private night schools called hagwons this area of Gangnam has over 1000 of these hagwons menuhim is taking Tommy to his English hagwon the to our topic lesson in English grammar I've arranged to meet Tommy at his hagwon and on my way over in the taxi the driver has plenty to say about the role hagwons play in society here this is math mathematics r1 and this is English hog 1 and this is mathematics I wan this is a street to hug ones real street just ants the children come here what time after school 5 o'clock about the 5 o'clock to 12 o'clock so at midnight this streets will be full of children yes beyond hoon has sent all of his three children to hug ones but when you have three children in the high ground hmm how much that custom you almost a two thousand per month tooth has a third partner for the honest mathematics how many hours do you have to work to play for the hacker about 14 hours 14 hours a day 15 hours in a day how many days a week oh six days six days we're working 14 hours a day yes so you never see your children why don't you see your children very hard to see each other yes it's a high price to pay for hug ones yes yes that's right that's true Korean parents spend more on private education for their kids than any other country in the world it's almost an addiction here the government has even placed at ten o'clock curfew on the hagwons to try and control their influence to keep the kids out of private education the girls school offers its own version of a hagwon but it's all too much for Sarah we were supposed to stay until 10:00 but I've actually been really tired so luckily we've been let out a bit earlier but yeah it's been a really intense day and definitely not used to staying in school this late that is private hagwon Tommy and his Korean classmate min young now face another test and Tommy what's the difference between present griffix and present sure thing yeah I have lips in Wales for 30 course that's present present perfect they cancel yet have it yeah the difference between have--let's and it yeah can I ask you because you've been teaching tonight a grammar lesson to one of our students from Wales Tommy but in the English grammar test minyan did better than Tommy I'll shoot me accent he's a he's a good student and also his diligent hmm I noticed that Tommy was writing down everything and he wanted to memorize it so Tommy is really telling something he has passions so if they're the system that helped Tommy then Tommy you can you know get a better score it's ten o'clock at night the hagwons are closing because of the government curfew certain many students like young Chan are carrying on we're actually heading back to school yes the saucer tea room is open until 11:30 11:30 then luckily we have our bikes there so she'll take them back no that makes things easier God and then along this Maura yeah and then one after that Dan cook boys school is open until half past 11:00 at night so they're carrying on with their studying there this is a relentless education system it's 10 o'clock at night and the streets just full of children a lot of them instill in their school uniforms and I've been speaking to a few groups of children some of them are tired some of them are hungry one said he would love to be playing basketball and one girl I spoke to she was 14 she said I just want to sleep I'm so tired I just want to go to sleep like other countries around the world the Welsh government has sent civil servants out to South Korea to see if changes need to be made to our education system back home but if this what it takes to get to the top of the international rankings and if it is is it actually worth it next time on school swap Korean style this is a surprise in store for our Welsh students what a gal pal as their headmaster flies over to see them oh no oh we find out how teachers are treated in South Korea and meet the maths teacher who's made millions from online classes I don't know war and I'll be confronting the Welsh Education Minister with my findings we're not where we should be we're not where I want to be but we are moving forward and the school swap continues at the same time tomorrow night here on BBC one Wales [Music]

Channel: school-swap-korea-style

Views: 2,713,573

Rating: 4.852067 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: aZsYdesxVCg

Length: 29min 8sec (1748 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/tranalbert]

This is what happens when you have a culture that values education and hard work

[u/slimkt]

While the 'Kung Fu Fighting' background music had a bit of a racist undertone, this documentary was very insightful. It's amazing how invested South Korean parents are in their childrens' education, but even more impressive is the childrens' diligence. I know culturally, there's a lot of pressure on them not to dishonor their parents and so, of course, they put their collective noses to the grindstone and work longer shifts than the average US doctor, but wow, I was exhausted just watching their day. Coming from a place that's much more lax, I can easily say most of my graduating class wouldn't have lasted in that kind of atmosphere. What I'm wondering, is, is that because we weren't raised the same way? Like, if we had learned high school level math in primary school and gradually progressed like the kids in South Korea did (without the incredible amount of overtime,) would we have tested better? Or is it something else? On a completely different note, I'm surprised that when I looked up the most recent PISA results, the United States tested far better than Wales.

[u/Bear_Goes_What]

I was not expecting a government placed curfews for private tutoring systems