CHAPTER 2: THE SITUATION (Continued)
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2.3.2 Current education system and statistics
World bank data for 1999 (World Bank website) show Korea as a high income economy (GNP per capita $10,550) with annual GDP growth of 5.5% and a population of forty-six million. Net primary enrolment is 92%, and net secondary enrolment is 97%, with only 1% of males, and 4% of females (age 15 and above) being illiterate. Korean students go to primary school at the age of six/seven (figure 6, below), middle school at age 12/13, and high school at age 15/16. There are various types of high schools, specialising in humanities, foreign languages, art & athletics, natural sciences, and vocational training. Students in vocational high schools receive tuition in subjects such as agriculture, engineering, commerce, fisheries, etc., and enter the job market upon graduating. Students in other high schools aim to enter a tertiary institution: national or private university (4 years); teacher-training college; college of education; or junior college (2 years). The Air and Correspondence colleges, along with the Open University have made tertiary education available to older citizens and to handicapped students. 

FIGURE B-6: SCHOOL LADDER SYSTEM IN KOREA (1999). BASED ON INFORMATION ON THE KOREAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION WEBSITE. 

From 1945 to 1978 the numbers of Primary schools (table A-2) increased from 2,834 (including South and North Korea) to 6,426 (in South Korea alone), and by the end of the 1970s, 99% of elementary-age children were in school (99.9% by 1996). The number of Secondary schools in this time increased from 165 (1945) to 3,265 (1978), and to 4,561 in 1996, while the number of tertiary institutions (universities, junior colleges, vocational colleges, graduate schools) rose from 19 to 309 (1945-1978) and to 827 by 1996 (513 of these are graduate schools). As can be seen from tables A-3 and A-4 (below) class sizes in high schools in 1996 were c. 48 students, 99% of students progressed from middle school to high school, and 78% of students from Academic high schools went to universities and colleges.

TABLE A-3: NUMBER OF STUDENTS PER CLASS  (BASED ON FIGURES FROM THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION WEBSITE).

TABLE A-4: RATE OF STUDENTS ENTERING A HIGHER SCHOOL  (BASED ON FIGURES FROM THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION WEBSITE). 

2.3.3 English education in Korea
Lee (1991:12) documents the history of English language teaching in Korea, from the "Tong-mun-hak"of 1883, to the state system of the present day, outlining a process of development from infancy and expansion (Late Chosun Era - 1883-1911), to shrinkage, restoration and suffering (Japanese colonial era - 1911-45), disarray (post-liberation era - 1945-61), reshaping (post-revolution era - 1961-80) and reform (contemporary era - 1980-present day) (cf. table A-5, below).

TABLE A-5: ENGLISH EDUCATION IN KOREA (BASED ON LEE 1991). 

2.3.3.1 English in secondary education.
Since its introduction into the university/college entrance examination during the Japanese colonisation, the study of English has been an important part of middle and high school education (it was added as a subject in elementary school in 1997, with a focus on oral skills). However, this entrance examination is highly objective, using TOEFL[6]-like discrete test items (Lee 1991:23), and promoting rote-learning of linguistic ‘facts'. Modern Koreans tend to be keen for their children to go to University (of 1.35 million applicants to tertiary education in 1993, 29% were accepted - Korean M.O.E. website), and this results in test-driven distortion of high school education, heavy financial burdens on parents, and physical and mental stress on the students, as evidenced by student suicides each year:

The high stress that the examination puts on students has even led some to commit suicide. News reports of high school students' attempted suicides immediately followed this year's CSAT[7] test on November 17. (Korea Herald, November 29, 1999)

Given this pressure to pass the entrance test (cf. Brown & Yamashita 1995:86), it is not surprising that high school English tuition focuses on knowledge of language-as-code, of which students typically absorb a considerable amount, despite limited exposure, large classes, "incompetent teachers"(Lee 1991:18) and low motivation. This situation is compounded by the lack of a National English "syllabus", with textbooks functioning both as syllabi and as teaching materials. These textbooks are sanctioned by the government and have till recently been grammar-oriented, treating language as a collection of discrete skills (Lee 1991:36). The report on the Sixth Curriculum for High School English (1992), however, specifies that "the grammatical syllabus does not help much to develop learners' communicative competence"(1992:66, translated by Li [1998:681]), and suggests that textbooks be produced based on CLT methodology.

Lee (1991:45-7) points out that Korean High school teachers teach English in Korean, because: i) they do not have sufficient command of spoken English (cf. Li 1998:686), and the self-perpetuating grammar-tran