Karl Schutz, an American teaching in South Korea on a Fulbright scholarship, writes about the plight of rural Anpyeong Middle School. The school is set to close next year. He says the shutdown represents the end of an era in South Korean public education, which is now dominated by urban magnet schools and private academies (hagwons).
Schutz notes that the South Korean countryside’s been losing relevance (and people and jobs) for decades now, as Seoul and other major cities became the country’s dominant political and economic hubs. In the face of dwindling enrollment numbers, it’s a miracle that this one small school has stayed open. Read more
