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Education Fever: Society, Politics, and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea. By MICHAEL J. SETH. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. vii, 305 pp. $49.00 (cloth).
Since independence from the Japanese colonial yoke in 1945, South Korea has accomplished an extraordinary transformation. Its unprecedented development from a poverty-stricken agrarian economy to a thriving industrial economy and from successive authoritarian governments to a democracy has been much celebrated. South Korea's educational system, which has continually evolved during the last half century, is often credited with these stunning changes. The majority of Koreans were illiterate when Korea became independent in 1945, and less then 5 percent of the adult population had received formal schooling beyond elementary education. Five decades later, South Korea boasts one of the highest literacy rates in the world; among industrial nations, South Korea ranks the highest in higher educational attainment. Comparative international tests continually show South Korean students among the top in math and science. All of these successes have commanded the admiration of the world. There is, nonetheless, very little systemic study of Korean education or its complex relationship to the social, economic, and political developments, which have catapulted Korea onto the world stage. Michael J. Seth's Education Fever: Society, Politics, and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea fills this void by providing excellent historical perspective on the complex intersection of forces that have contributed to Korea's much lauded educational, social, economic, and political successes. Seth ultimately deals with the question of whether "education fever" is a symptom of change propelled by larger social forces or the engine driving and shaping those forces.
The book opens with a comprehensive introduction that sets the stage...