Around Nov. 8, 2012, two students decided to end it all. One was found dead at a flowerbed near an apartment in Daegu, with a note hinting a pessimistic view of life. The other hanged himself in his house, having suffered from severe depression. The only thing he left behind was a short will saying, “I’m sorry”. Nov. 8 was the day of the College Scholastic Ability Test(Su-neung).
News reports of students committing suicide around this period are nothing new. In South Korea, around 13 teenage students on average give up their own lives every month. Since 2009, suicide has been the leading cause of death in the country. 10.1% of teenagers(15~19) confessed that they have at least once thought of committing suicide, and more than half of them pointed out “scholastic grade and the problem of entering university” as a main reason for the thought.
Experts point out severe, limitless competition and uniformity as the causes of this present reality. Excessive burden on students’ shoulders are leading them to go so far as to commit suicide.
Yet, high school students, who are at the center of this reality, are blaming not only the problem of competition but also the Korean education system.
“Of course, the leading reason might be the pressure caused by endless competitiveness, but this is not the only one. Students are being skeptical about the education, which is their learning. In other words, Korean cramming education isn’t driving us to the sense of achievement, but to the ‘tragedy’,” pointed out Jinsoo Kang, a 10th grader at Hanyoung Foreign Language High School.
Every year around this time, extreme decisions by a few students cause a great deal of sorrow to the society. Hyemin Jung, 10th grader of Korea University High School stressed, “A troubled mind before the test, and despair after the test are steering test-takers to the irrevocable decision. But the real problem is, we people are starting to take it for granted. This shouldn’t be an annual event. It is a matter of great concern that has to be solved with a critical mind.”
