Headline February 10, 2018/ '' 'CUTTHROAT EDUCATION CULTURE' ''

'' 'CUTTHROAT EDUCATION CULTURE' ''

SOUTH KOREA : PRESSURE AT SCHOOL and worries about jobs are seen as a major contributors to South Korea's high youth suicide rate.

 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT - Lee Do-gyeong, said she was looking forward to studying in cube's sound-proof seclusion, but-

But she acknowledged that if parents forced their children to use the room it could be ''nothing more than a rice chest,'' a reference to the infamous incident where an 18th Century Korean Prince was locked away and in a rice chest to die

Choi Ki-ju, the chief executive officer of studycube maker EMOK, said seclusion can help students focus without distractions. One customer compared using the studycube  to reading in the toilet, Choi said.

''This is simply accurate, don't we concentrate better when we read books in the toilet?'' he said. 

''AS THERE ARE FEWER JOBS INTENSIFYING competition to secure those seems to be appearing in the college prep process,'' said Kim Jung-woo, an economist at the Korean Labor Institute.

This sense of competition in South Korea has only intensified and amid one of the worst job slumps.

''The widespread perception among Korean  society  that people can work only if they graduate university is the fundamental cause of this excessive education fever.''

On top of high school classes that run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., many children in South Korea stay at school for hours of self-learning everyday.

Some take classes in private academies  called  ''hagwon''  and late at night, including weekends and even holidays, in a bid to get into the best schools and universities.

ACCORDING   to a   report   from   the  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development  [OECD], 23 percent of South Korean Students reported studyng more than 60-hours a week, nearly double the OECD average of 13 percent.

South Korea's expenditure on educational institutions is around 5.8 percent of the country's GDP , one of the highest among OECD countries, and nearly half of the tertiary education expenditure is funded by-households, compared with an OECD average of 22 percent, the report added.

Three-quarters of students said they expect to complete university education, above the OECD  average of 44 percent.

South Korea's education ministry in late January announced a plan to promote of high school graduates, saying the prevailing perception of university enrolment as the only way to reduce unemployment of college graduates as well as labor shortages in smaller businesses that university graduates turn their noses up at.

Pressure at school and worries about jobs are seen as major contributions to South Korea's high youth suicide rate.

According to Statistics Korea, 31 percent of total deaths of children aged 10 to 19 are from outside, the biggest cause of death among the age-group.

The Institute for Social Development Studies Research has reported that 40 percent of South Korean high school students who were particularly concerned with their grades have-

Have experienced impulses, while the country's children and teenagers the satisfaction is the lowest among the OECD.

Still for many seeking a better life  in South Korea's cutthroat economy, the top universities are seen as the best bet.

Even though ''SKY Castle'' may be extreme, it is still worth it to enter the top universities,'' said  Kwon Seung-ok, a mother who said the show inspired her to hire a university consultant for her daughter ahead of entrance exams this year.

''That will lead to better opportunities and better employment. Life will definitely get easier.''

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