Charlotte Court: There are lessons to be learned from Asia – but it’s not a quick fix, Mr Gove

However, it is difficult to stand and watch when a four-year-old Korean child returns to school for extra lessons at 5:15pm because his English reading skills (yes, that’s his second language reading skills) are not up to the standard of some of his class peers, without feeling a certain amount of resentment on behalf of the child.

This was why I was particularly interested in Michael Gove’s recent campaign for longer school days and shorter school holidays in the British education system, citing concern that our current education system “risks leaving British children behind Asia”.

While Asia, of course, covers a vast number of countries, with South Korea ranked second in a worldwide study of international education for Pearson by the EIU in November 2012, I made the, not unrealistic, assumption that our Education Secretary was including South Korea in his wide sweep of Asian country education examples.

Could the grades and standards of British education increase by focusing on one fragment of South Korean education? Or do we need a more wholesale acceptance of their educational culture? And, if so, do we want one?

Before we can look at the length of school hours, Britain must first understand the South Korean school attendance age, which hides an extra dimension of very early learning. When a South Korean child is born, they are officially one-year-old. Furthermore, every Korean ages a year on January 1. Consequently, a child born on December 31 can actually be two days old, yet formally classed as aged two years.

It is based on this age system that South Koreans attend state school approximately 250 days per year. Students progress through middle school and stay until 5pm. Once they reach high school, the equivalent of sixth form college in the UK, they also leave at 5pm. However, it is heavily recommended to students wishing to get accepted at a university that they complete individual study, and they often do not finish until 11pm.

Despite this, state school is not considered enough for many Korean parents. If Britain’s Education Secretary is looking to Asia for performance improvement and “catching up” inspiration, he has missed out a vital cornerstone of Asian education: the academy.

There is a private academy for everything and they are widely regarded as a necessary supplement to everyday schooling. Attending one academy is rarely enough. From maths to jump rope; from science to art – there is even a Lego academy.

Academies for young elementary school children continue late: private maths tuition for seven year olds at 7pm on a Friday night is not considered counter-productive as it may be in the UK owing to the time of day and the age of the student. A 12-year-old I teach, who was recently preparing for her first middle school tests, attended an academy for six hours every Saturday and six hours every Sunday for a month to prepare for her exams. These are not unusual instances.

But where does this lead for those who are being pushed in this relentless fashion? Stress is a buzz word used regularly by the elementary students I teach, whose ages range from six to 11 years. Even an English essay based on the title “What Is The Best Thing To Do Tonight?” can be returned with such tell-tale clues as “If we watch a movie, we can be less stressed”.

Homework is an essential part of the learning process and even three-year-old kindergarteners have nightly English phrases to learn or songs to sing. Of course, when you’re three, what’s one song from another as long as you can pretend to be Spiderman as you listen to it? However, as the work gets harder and the number of academies you attend becomes greater, you have to wonder: is the fun stopping too soon and the stress starting too early?

And what of those families that cannot afford to have their children privately educated at an English, maths, science, art, piano and taekwondo academy? Inevitably, there have been suggestions that higher education in Korea is becoming increasingly polarised and that the “elite universities [are] increasingly the domain of the wealthy”.

The positive that accompanies this deluge of education is the attitude towards learning. Education culture in Korea has been created around an utmost respect for the teacher and any subject matter. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that the Korean economy has been propelled over the last 20 years in parallel to this thirst for educational improvement.

Do we need to be aware of the statistics of our educational competitors and improve our school structure in line with that of Asian countries such as South Korea? It would surely seem foolish to ignore the momentum of systems that are performing so well.

However, if we are looking towards those countries ranked as the world’s best, we will have to do so by fully understanding the vast differences in style and beliefs. Longer school days and shorter school holidays are not quick answers to the creation of reverence towards education and subsequent results seen in South Korea. If Michael Gove really wants to get Britain’s children to the same pace, he may have to look at redefining education culture in a much more British way.