"If Non-Regular Jobs Are Not Resolved, Educational Inequality Will Continue to Worsen" [How Is Your Dream?]

Kwonil Park, Social Critic

Education experts view the academic achievement gap not as a result of individual ability or lack of effort. Rather, they see it as being more heavily influenced by factors such as parents' economic status, educational background, and residential area. This tendency to be inherited across generations becomes even stronger over time. The standardized college entrance system fails to accurately measure each student's actual abilities. Since education serves as a gateway connected to economic capabilities like employment and entrepreneurship, comprehensive social improvement is necessary.

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Social critic Park Kwon-il describes the current college entrance system as having "reached the end of its life." He means that no matter how much it is reformed, it is ineffective. Park said, "Which university one attends still plays a major role in determining a person's life, and the first company one joins decides the rest of their career life. Therefore, simply changing the entrance system cannot significantly alter the unfair reality."

Park believes that exams like the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) or civil service exams have never been truly fair. He explained, "Although it appears to be a competition based purely on individual ability, not all students study under the same conditions. It cannot be considered fair when everyone takes the exam on the same day despite starting from different starting lines." He especially noted that the entrenched elite will continue attempts to pass down not only economic capital but also social capital through education. "Social capital and networks, which cannot be bought with money, wield tremendous power, so elites want to pass them on to their children intact or even amplified." He pointed out that this inheritance also manifests as inequality in hiring processes.

Park Kwon-il, social critic. Books: Meritocracy and Inequality, The 880,000 Won Generation, Right-Wing Extremism Here and Now, etc.

Park added, "In the book 'Their Own Hiring League,' which studied interviewers who interviewed Ivy League students employed at law firms or investment banks, it was found that interviewers chose white males simply because they felt comfortable talking to them." He continued, "Although they claim to select based on meritocracy, in reality, it was a highly nepotistic, arbitrary selection based on connections, preferences, and cultural capital."

The situation in South Korea is not much different. Park foresees that the hierarchical structure of occupations and the discriminatory system between regular and non-regular workers must disappear for entrance exam corruption to improve. He said, "The problems arising in entrance exams are ultimately connected to which workplace one goes to after graduating from university. Labor conditions must change for entrance exam issues to be resolved." He also mentioned that the collapse of university rankings is not far off. Park stated, "Because even after graduating from university, there is nothing to do, and students graduate with tens of millions of won in debt but cannot find employment, the pyramid structure from mid-tier to lower-tier universities will largely break down."