Why Are Asian Youths More Academically Advanced? | School Swap: Korea Style | Real Families

when it comes to school exam results Britain is nowhere near the top of the international league table in fact its Asian countries that consistently take the top spots the UK lags Behind These masters of education and my home nation Wales is the worst performing country compared to England Scotland and Northern Ireland I'm Sean Griffiths education editor at the Sunday Times I want to know what would it take for Welsh schools to compete and be at the top of those rankings and to do that I need some help I'm inviting three pupils from my old school in Wales to swap their classrooms 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 and parents plow a small fortune into private tuition for their kids this is Extreme education [Music] so for three days three Welsh teenagers will live and breathe career and education to find out the secret to their success I honestly can't keep my eyes open this is school swap Korean Style [Music] Saint David's in pembrokeshire is the smallest 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 education system was renowned but something has changed so I want three students from my old school to help me find out what I'm sending them to one of 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 or playing sports with my friends a bit more than studying school for me is about yeah sure you come along and you see your friends every day but it's also about a knuckling down and actually getting 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 Korea 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 our three Welsh teenagers are traveling 6 000 miles from pembrokeshire to the capital of South Korea Seoul [Music] three days I've arranged for them to be totally immersed in Korean school and Teenage life and they need to look the path too looks like you're gonna play cricket so first stop is the local school uniform shop 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 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 seen they're going to be really strict Sarah will attend the nearby all-girls school sumun over 1500 girls attend this High School and it's one of the best in Gangnam with strict rules on uniform and appearance 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 learned any in the few hours you've been here I've picked up a little bit I mean like cancer somebody died it's like thank you um and Tommy knows the way to like introduce yourself when you uh greet someone or you say manuso pangobs so I'm useless I've been relying on these two okay well good luck all three of you off you go cheers Sarah Tommy and Ewan now split up and head off to meet their Korean classmates for the first time they know nothing about their host families and the nerves are definitely starting to show yeah a bit nervous but uh should be good to meet them I think Novus doesn't quite cut it do I press here here we go okay hello Sarah will be staying with 16 year old cyan when she was young Xeon went to a school for gifted children and her favorite subject is maths that's the living room okay yeah gosh actually here meanwhile on the other side of town Tommy is going up in the world hello classmate is min young 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 sooner that's really cool that's a lovely view as well yuan is the last to meet his Korean counterpart Jung Chan hello hello there's no television here jung-chan's parents believe it's a barrier to good education this is a really nice house you make the most of the space as well it's really good both are top students in their class and it's not long before they check out each other's maths homework and musical skills [Music] [Applause] thank you everybody's still not perfect first impressions I don't start a chance he's amazing he can play the piano backwards for Christ's sake I don't understand a chance finally here I'm finally here and it's crazy it's really good like an idiot now tomorrow our three Welsh students are going to discover why Korean education is the toughest in the world what time does school start tomorrow we need to be there by eight eight all right okay yeah all right Clark so quite an early start but it's all right I think it's math English and history okay and then we're gonna have dinner at school and then we're gonna have like the extracurricular stuff we stay there until like 10 10 o'clock at night 10. yes okay I'm normally fast asleep but 10 o'clock but I think I can change for a couple of days I don't think I'm prepared for this thank you [Music] 6 45 in the morning and in young Chan's house there's no sign of Yuan whoa you won it's already like 6.7 sure that's normal over at seon's house it's a different type of wake-up call for Sarah over breakfast we have this bag in each class for us to put our phones in but we have to keep our phones in yes you're not even just like not allowed to turn them off and put them with you I guess you can but or if a teacher finds out they'll take it for like a week and a half to a month I guess it depends on the teacher they can take your phone off you for that long yeah I did wake up and I just fell back asleep ready for school now apparently I might be out until 11 30 at night so it'd be quite interesting while Sarah and Yuan make their way to their respective schools over at Min Young's house Tommy's only just getting up I don't usually function at this time and as you get better weather out here than we do really much better this is like this is like actually quite a nice day it's a bit I think I'll be tied before lunch [Music] because Tommy got up so late his Korean classmate is worried I'm going to be there on time I think he's never been late to school before awesome catch up don't worry in dankook high school punishment for missing the bell is coming in even earlier to clean the corridors and classrooms [Music] with seconds to spare both have avoided mopping up duties for today at least Sarah is creating a bit of a stir over at Sumo and girls school being the only blonde in school can make you quite a celebrity [Music] I'm not normally awake until about quarter to eight it's too strange too early it's ten to eight and first up it's English and a gentle easing in for Tommy Ewan and Sarah sounds like a good idea more than 99 of Korean students choose to stay in school after they turn 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 survive 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 three thousand vows or prayers overnight this Saturday for guess what good exam results these mothers are praying for good results in the end of term exams foreign book has a picture of their child [Music] and on the roof of the temple the light stays on in the family's Lantern until the child reaches University [Music] the mother's 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 sixty years ago nearly 80 percent of the population here was illiterate today South Korea is an economic giant they did all that through education [Music] [Music] so how good are they I've arranged a test for the boys in duncook school good morning 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 box I'm sorry [Music] 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 two a Stars Four A's Four B's and a c I thought I did quite well considering the amount of work I did the only grade that I would have liked to get higher was a c in maths I would have liked to get that up to a b 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 most of them finished it in about 15 minutes it was 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 and 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 um and I said well some people in our class have failed that and they said well that's that's astounding so I just think they just work harder they go over it and then an example they've never studied before before they just did it straight through so yeah amazing Korean teenagers are exam busting machines and are among the top performing students in the world we know this because of the Pisa tests every three years 15 year olds in 68 different countries sit the same exams in maths science and reading in the latest Pisa maths test Asian countries like South Korea once again come out on top Ireland a down with Scotland at 29th and my home nation Wales write down at 36th 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 [Music] I feel really bad 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 gut-friendly fermented cabbage called kimchi really nice it's sort of like a stew sort of thing but there's less stew to it and more meat and veggie stuff it's really tasty really tasty with their bellies full it's 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 [Applause] 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 there's a beautiful time of our life but you know they're kind of like squeezed under like a big load of pressure their day is probably like 6 2 12 or something six a.m in the morning to midnight to midnight whoa six hours sleep six hours sleep that's a very like insufficient so we've been seeing some children sleep actually nodding off in in lessons what do you do when you see children doing that I was actually I tap the class I mean the window of the classroom yeah and I tried to wake them up by like like sending my finger signal to them does it work to yeah it's working yeah eventually probably that's going to damage their like efficiency of the studies right so they need to sleep they kind of lack of sleep so that's the part of the reason we're doing this it's kind of like some activities 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 petrified [Music] look how wrong it can go [Music] next up it's Tommy's team [Applause] [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 [Applause] [Music] 20 minutes past four 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 10 hours in and Sarah's sitting in the same classroom in the same chair [Music] I feel really bad but I honestly couldn't keep my eyes open during that lesson it's all getting too much for Sarah 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 take a rest I feel so good and after that we can go to my instructor class then we go home ah I feel bad going into the nurse's room I should just I should be awake but I'm just so genuinely tired foreign make their way to a five-hour self-studying session in the local public library at the moment we're waiting to get into the library I was amazed that they're all in there at once and acquisitely silent there was even a kid in this about 10 years old surprising but it shows the work ethic that Korean people have and it's just impressive 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 schoolworks which 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 so if I want to study more and like finish on my work then I just come back to school and yeah stay here until 12. my parents influence is the biggest part because my dad grew up in the countryside he had really poor backgrounds and he like studied really hard and he made it into Seoul if he can do that well um maybe I can like study more foreign 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 that's what drives me to study when they're not self-studying in libraries most Korean students go to private night schools called hagwans this area of Gangnam has over 1 000 of these hagwans is taking Tommy to his English hagran to our Top-Up lesson in English grammar [Music] I've arranged to meet Tommy at his hagwan and on my way over in the taxi the driver has plenty to say about the role hagwan's play in society here this is mathematics have one and this is English aguan and this is mathematics this is a street of hagwans really this is yes that's right and the children come here what time after school five o'clock about the five o'clock to 12 o'clock so at midnight this street will be full of children yes yes yes yes [Music] bianhun has sent all of his three children to hagwans so when you have three children in the hagrance how much is that costing you almost to 2 000 per month two thousand terminal for the honest mathematics how many hours do you have to work to play for the hard way about uh 14 hours 14 hours a day about 15 hours in a day how many days a week oh six days a week if you're working 14 hours a day yes so you never see your children when do you see your children it's very hard to see each other yes oh it's a high price to pay for high glance 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 a 10 o'clock curfew on the hagwans to try and control their influence to keep the kids out of private education the girls school offers its own version of a hagwan but it's all too much for Sarah we were supposed to stay until 10 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 at his private aguan Tommy and his Korean classmate Min young now face another test and Tommy what is the difference between present perfect and past I have lived in Wales for 40 years that's the Present part as in perfect yeah what's the difference between have lived and lived uh I moved I don't know yeah okay 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 minions did better than Tommy [Laughter] he's a he's a good student and also he's diligent I noticed that Tommy was writing down everything and he wanted to memorize it so Tommy is really diligent and he has passions so if there's a system that helped Tommy then Tommy can you know get a better score so Hackman seemed to be doing a good job from your point of view but a lot of people criticize them and they say that children are here too late and they get very tired what would you say to that you know personally I I just want the second one to help students you know everyone wants to go to a new Seoul national university and I help students to go to those schools so in a family if someone goes to send you assault in the University it's it's kind of really big pride in that family so I think it's a kind of culture it's 10 o'clock at night the hagwans are closing because of the government curfew but many students like young Chan are carrying on so where are we going now so we're actually heading back to school back to school yeah so the soft study room is open until 11 30 11 30 then luckily we have our bikes there so she'll take them back home and that makes things easier good and then a long day tomorrow yeah and then one after that Dan Cook boys school is open until half past 11 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 Street's 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 is this what it takes to get to the top of the international rankings and if it is is it actually worth it [Music] schools open early in Korea after the pupils are finished cleaning their classrooms in the corridors it's the start of lessons for Ewan and Tommy this is a far cry from this school back in pembrokeshire it's half eight in the morning I'm feeling a bit tired it's taking a toll on me I mean I prefer our type of school they really don't experiment online work so much in the morning [Music] across the city in the all-girls school Sarah has more energy than she had on day one yeah definitely I'm much more alert today 100 but then again we have got history and Korean next so I don't know how that's gonna go for me hopefully fingers crossed I'll stay awake this all girls high school is one of the best in Seoul these girls are passionate about their education they work long hours anything from eight in the morning to 11 at night to pass their exams and what's striking is the respect the teachers have here an old Asian proverb says that the king and the teacher are both equal in status no wonder then that some teachers have made a Fortune of the back of that belief I'm on my way to meet the most famous teacher in South Korea and we've arranged to meet in a hair salon [Music] or Mr Char to his hordes of adoring fans is preparing for his next lesson your hairstyle today it's your normal style or there's a good reason for your hairstyle today in education obsessed South Korea Char is a top-ranked maths teacher and here it makes him a celebrity [Music] he looks every bit the pop star and shares the Limelight with some of Korea's biggest Idols [Music] this is Mr Charles latest single an appeal for students to smile as they study for their big college entrance exams you are very rich from this yeah you are a millionaire money [Music] Fortune by running an online cram school or hagwan part of the country's huge private education business [Music] and he has a variety of props masks costumes and wigs which he wears according to his mood entertainment is a fundamental part of the learning process but this is a very serious business he has three million registrations on his website and at any one time three hundred thousand students are logged on each paying 22 pounds per month to watch his maths lessons he is a celebrity Superstar he has built up an Empire here in just six years you think it's stupid but then you realize that actually even 17 year olds are captivated by him he has a massive following and it just goes to show how big maths is in South Korea [Music] over in the girls school Sarah is about to have a taste of mathematics Korean Style teenagers here are notoriously good at maths and consistently top the international rankings Sarah seems to be holding her own you have to add um so five minus three is two so that's where the two points and the five plus three is eight unfortunately for Sarah it's first come first solve in this school [Music] has been left unfinished [Music] [Music] I think all the girls knew how to do it but they just thought they'd let me do it I kind of felt like it out of a sympathy vote because that was the easiest one on the board and I couldn't do any of the other ones um but at the end of the day I got some food out of it so it's fine [Music] in between lessons at Dan Cook boys school Tommy and Ewan get a chance to visit the school Farm a while ago they've built this biological studies Center or whatever to Help with Biology and stuff and it's just for animals on the school grounds and we've come down here and there's cats and rabbits and chickens it's just bizarre yeah before this this was you know in much bigger scale like there were peacocks in uh iguanas and like exotic animals I'm allergic so I don't really want to get too close can't open this you know halfway through their three days in a Korean school and the long hours are taking their toll on Ewan and Tommy as well as a few others [Music] are bad I'm usually like this tired every day if you keep doing it you sort of get tired you get used to it when do you go to school oh uh nine o'clock and then we finish off 3 30. by spending so much time with Tommy Min young has a growing curiosity about Welsh education I don't think you can say you know which is better people in Wales they get more active and they get more like social ties I guess and you know we study more so if we find like a middle ground where we can study and engage in like those kind of fun activities then I think that would be like the best in three years time men like all other Korean high school students will have to sit a university entrance exam called the KSAT the test offered only once a year is seen as the make or break exam not only when it comes to college admissions but for a teenager's entire future it's like a defining moment in your whole education I guess everyone wants to go to Seoul national university which is like the top you know like at the top and yeah I'm aiming for it you know everyone's aiming for it I think Seoul national university is just like Oxford or Cambridge back home and it's just as difficult to get in these students are the next generation of Korean maths teachers this year 3 000 students applied to go on this teacher's training course only 36 got places I think maybe two percent or maybe five percent High School grades we can only admit it to my department so if you want to be a maths teacher this and be trained in this University you're one of the top two to five percent yeah graduates why is it that your best graduates in South Korea once become teachers what is the number one reason do you think number one yeah stability number two two months holiday yeah and number three maybe it's still we respect teachers becoming a teacher is a dream job for many high school pupils dohyan Kim is one of them under enormous pressure he studied 16 hours a day for three years solid to get into this University it was real difficult you know especially in Korea we have a lot of students who wants to go to the college so the competition is really tough you know we have only one exam for a college entrance once a year and that is the major source of stress for luck for lots of high school students in Korea after only a few King to do young Kim I could see that it was almost painful for him to talk about his time in high school and then I found out why I lost about two or three friends to Suicide yeah all the way up here really yeah because they were studying too hard one was extremely stressed by the the studying part and the other also committed suicide yeah oh I'm really well they're about you know 15 or 16. South Korea has the highest suicide rates in the industrialized world it is astonishingly the number one cause of death for those aged between 10 and 30 years old some say it's time to make changes to the system including the former minister of Education who was in charge of South Korea's success in the last Pisa International rankings those High test scores in Pisa mask very important problems in Korean education for example Korean students don't have enough time to read to the sports to the music and to spend their time freely because they are too much pressures to prepare for the exam even in Pisa test when they ask Korean students whether they are happy in school Korean students raise the lowest so it's really worrisome it's time for Korean parents to make changes uh to prepare our next generation for the 21st centuries our children may need different set of skills other than just High test scores communication collaboration and and creativity they should be nurtured [Music] the government are introducing using changes to the system all middle schools now have to allow one school term free of any written exams though there's still another five terms of exams left the aim is to get pupils into sports and other creative activities in the girls school Sarah is swapping her classroom for a kitchen she's learning how to make Korean pancakes presentation is probably about a four and joining them in the class kitchen are a group of parents in South Korea parents are free to observe the teacher to judge the quality of teaching they give them the score for most teachers it's an uncomfortable experience personally it's awful but sometimes it's really helpful for me to keep in awake as a teacher because I need to train myself and sometimes I need to learn more things about you know education and that really helps me to encourage my students too after this lesson I've kind of like got to know everyone I still don't know all their names but I think they've definitely like tried to make me feel welcome and I feel much more relaxed now than I did at the beginning when everyone was just staring at me I think they kind of actually see me as a person now this lesson it was as if it could have been a lesson back at home and we've got to kind of like take over ourselves and so that was really good so I think that brought my mood up a little bit teachers are under pressure they're not only marked by the parents but by their fellow teachers and even by the pupils Korean parents consider it their duty to give their children every opportunity to be their best and they are prepared to make significant sacrifices long into the night parents are seen ferrying their kids between schools and Top-Up classes in the hagwans parents dedicate both time and money into developing the Next Generation it is a responsibility that is taken most seriously tonight Yoon Chang is taking Yuan to a three-hour Maths hagwan for some probability equations oh my God you should like open a restaurant Yoon Chan's parents pay for this extra tuition to make sure that he passes his exams but their sacrifices don't stop with paying for classes they even took a decision to move house leaving a bigger property to live in this small apartment because it is nearer to a good school and good hagwans the location wise this house is very perfect for my children education that's the reason why many parents want to review this area even though the high cost level living the family only see each other at weekends dad works away all week in a nuclear power plant to pay for the top of tuition for his son and Mr five hours by course that's a big sacrifice and this is a special problem yeah Western was a perspective it would be a huge sacrifice well in Korea separation from family in proper durable child education is very common so yeah I can accept yeah your parents have high expectations of their kids and they're willing to sacrifice so much to ensure their success do I look tired I wonder why you unfinishes is hagwan Sarah is having private maths tuition in seon's apartment they're just working so hard I think in the long run it probably isn't that beneficial because of mental health and everything like that [Music] Sarah's school in pembrokeshire is more than a place to study in her GCSE examia the school helped her through a very tough and emotional year yeah it's been quite a difficult year this year because my mum was diagnosed with cancer again so on top of my gcses there was quite a lot of stress the school they helped me so much because mum was going through chemotherapy as I was doing my gcses so having that kind of support network at school was incredible so I hope to go on to do medicine at University neither Cardiff or Bristol which has kind of been fueled by mum being poorly I will do whatever it takes to get into University and to go on and obviously become a doctor then so what if you had to decide between a Welsh and a Korean school for your child which one would you choose Welshman Allied Powell met his Korean wife fionno whilst teaching in a Korean hagwan they've now left Korea and live in North Wales a tough decision but one they made to keep their daughter Owen out of the Korean system when I worked in hagwan I hated it because I could feel the students are suffering they don't like it I wouldn't want to send Aaron to those are ones oh I think Aaron said she doesn't want to go either so you wouldn't really want Aaron going into a secondary school and career than a high school well I think the pressures are too high they've got a wide range of choice of subjects in Wales as well so whatever her interests are I think the wealth system is quite good for catering for that it seems these parents have set a course for their daughter in the Welsh school system or have they I think mum still needs to be convinced I think it's just ideal living there but when she's like in secondary school I'm not very sure about it because I don't feel the encouraged to study hard it's good they have choices for their lives but especially academically I don't feel encouraged we're here it's more than encouragement here it's it's it's pushing and it has effects not just on the children but on the whole family units there's a few years yet until our wind starts school so plenty of time to decide which country offers the best education but our time in Korea is fast running out after spending three days in a Korean School the Welsh students prepare for their last day and for Tommy he gets a taste of the cleaning duties dished out as punishment for Korean kids no I do cleaning on their final day I've arranged a surprise for the Welsh students [Music] the head teacher David Haynes has flown out from a school Dairy Sands in pembrokeshire to see them the students have no idea he is here [Music] oh no oh no oh no oh no are we boys it's a head teacher how's Sarah's Korean coming along is it good have you learned any words no I would be useless on my own it's very different in some ways similar in other ways longer days longer days much longer days because you may only have three lessons one day yeah they've got it easier than these guys yeah yeah how are you how are you how are you doing thank you for having me welcome to my school yeah awesome that's great how many children will you have entry in a year how many children in one year [Music] um 500 in one year as big as my school yeah really yeah yeah the whole size of his whole school okay and that's 11 to 19. yeah so we have about 80 children a year I am disco you know it's like you know sometimes every month this place that reminds me like a boot camp too many kids here after spending the day at both schools I want to find out from the welshed master what lessons he thinks can be learned from our Korean counterparts I think the work ethic is is first class children are dedicated they work long hours and this school stays open until 12 at night for students to stay behind after school which is which is a remarkable reason something we would we don't see back in Wales would you like to see schools stay open later in Wales maybe till seven or eight o'clock so it's certainly something to think about I'm not saying we should be open till 12 o'clock by any stretch of the imagination but certainly something that we need to look at I think um our children our children do work hard within the current framework but they don't work as hard as the kids in South Korea um they don't work as long I don't think in terms of the month of hours it's been in school and they don't get quite the same level of grades and no exam results they don't achieve the same levels within the Pisa test no however so there are lessons to be learned today I I said yes yes I agree and but um speaking to the principle here you know he's very interested in what we do with regards to deeper thinking and being creative I think the lessons to be learned from Korea visiting us but there's certainly lessons to be learned by visit visiting South Korea as well from David haynes's experience there's a shortage of top maths teachers in Wales so he'd like to bring over maths teachers from South Korea to solve the problem in the Health Service we bring across doctors from other parts of the world and they contribute greatly to our society and the provision that we receive I don't see it being a problem at all that Specialists and highly trained professionals coming from other parts of the world like South Korea could contribute greatly I think to our education system in three days our Welsh students have clocked up more than 100 hours of study double the time compared to back home but now it's all come to an end it's time to say goodbye to their Korean classmates I feel like I've actually like made some good relations here and it just feels like um there are actually my class and I've got used to being in that class and it's been fun and I've been part of the learning experience and it's been really good so I'm kind of sad in a way that it's my last day [Music] obviously I've enjoyed the whole experience and having that opportunity to witness this school but I'm definitely definitely going to be happy to get out of this uniform obviously thank you for like making everything so comfortable for me and really welcoming me when we first came here we felt like really alien because we didn't know anyone and everybody was giving us weird looks sort of and it just since since we've been here it's only been three days and I like feel like part of the class and it's really cool it's been really good few days it's been very funny as well you've all got really good personalities So yeah thank you very much and I hope you do well in your exams thank you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] only feels like yesterday I arrived and I was gonna go to school but it's all coming into her end so yeah it's been a really good experience though certainly I'll remember it for a long time before they leave their Korean host families and catching up with Tommy Ewan and Sarah for their final impressions I feel like it would benefit the younger years where education is still compulsory to bring in some of the same rules if you'd say as the South Koreans do just to kind of improve the work ethic I think if there were stronger like after school classes to help people with problems they might be having a school like if there was a sort of high ground-based thing that would be really good just not finishing his life yeah so more after school clubs in St David's and some more rules yeah oh no because we sound so bad we're a bit too soft on the kids at home yeah yeah they don't mess around they give you a punishment you get cleaning Duty or you stay after school you think that's good that's consistent you understand yeah but I mean true is it what you want so if they were competing against Korean students for a University Place who would win how does a Welsh a-level compare to the Korean KSAT at the end of the day they're studying so hard for that case that they don't actually get extracurricular options so even if they smash those exams if we smash ours as well we win yeah just simply by circumstance before they head off back to school in Wales there's a few more goodbyes to say all right this is farewell pleasure pleasure to have you here you guys gonna have to come and stay with me so now yeah I'll be sure to visit your voice yeah thank you cheers come here did you like Chase hugs thank you thank you very much very happy to help you and thank you for feeding me so much the food's been incredible it's just I'm coming back you're my son all right I'm very happy I have a nice friend too it's been good to meet you man it's okay bye thank you bye yeah see you soon bye thank you bye see you later thank you bye [Music] I've learned is South Korea schools are changing they're cutting back on the testing they're taking the best of our system more Sports more creative activities and they're applying them here but what we're not doing is we're not taking what they already have here which is a foundation of knowledge which is a work ethic which is ambition and aspiration for every child and my real fear is that these countries are going to be accelerating away from us as an even faster rate than they already are it's time to head home and there is one thing I am Keen to do education is a devolved area that means the system in Wales is run by the Welsh government in the senate in Cardiff Bay in the days before the latest education rankings are announced I meet with education Minister Kirsty Williams I want to see what she thinks about our Korean experience and find out how she plans to improve wales's standing in the international rankings did you think Wales did okay last time around no absolutely not I was very clear outside of government and I'm very clear now that I'm in the government that wales's previous performance in Pisa has not been good an f and it's not what I I want to see we need to make improvements and do you want Wales to be in the top 10 the top 20 in Pisa I want Wales to improve its scores now I'm not going to sit here like other politicians in the past have made wild predictions about where we will sit what's important is the individual scores that our children can achieve and we need to make progress I want Welsh parents to be engaged to go into parents evening to take up the opportunities that the school afford to talk about what they can do to support their children's education take up a place on a school governing body let me know about how they perceive Welsh policy is developing I'm clear that we are making the changes that will make a difference to Pisa results in the future we're not where we should be we're not where I want to be but we are moving forward [Music] since filming a skull Dairy sand has introduced Korean style changes to its School they're going to ban mobile phones for GCSE pupils and will make the school day longer with timetable study sessions in the evenings though they still believe that there's more to life than very long hours looking at a Blackboard [Music] and coming from pembrokeshire I wouldn't entirely disagree with that of course it's about getting the balance right but I'm convinced that looking at career there is still a lot for us right across the UK to learn [Music]

Channel: Real Families

Views: 386,959

Keywords: Real families, parenting documentary, family documentary, documentary movies - topic, tv shows - topic, school swap, korea, korean schools, korean students, erasmus, studying abroad, korean excelence, academia in korea

Id: g7PWrn9EpN8

Length: 58min 33sec (3513 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 17 2022