The ‘Yaja’ Debate

Nighttime self-study, also known as “yaja,” is a studying system of Korea in which students study at school until late in the night. Although each school has different regulations, it is mandatory in most schools for students to participate.

When surveyed, a group of high school students in various grades and schools, 60 percent of the students answered that nighttime self-study should not be mandatory. “Sometimes, we have no choice but to go home early,” says Seonkyung Yoon, a 10th grade student of Buram High School. “We could be sick, or have a previous engagement. Sometimes, we just don’t feel like studying, on days like the last day of midterm. However, the school doesn’t even try to understand the students! They don’t listen to the reasons why we don’t study during yaja time, but only scold us!”

Like Yoon, many other students sometimes have no choice but to waste their nighttime self-study time. 93 percent of the students surveyed answered that they have skipped nighttime self-study before, and 98 percent of the students answered that they have slept during nighttime self-study times before. That is why some people argue that nighttime self-study should not be mandatory. However, the other 40 percent of the students have a different opinion.

 

 

“I never study when I am at home,” says Jiwon Kim, a 10th grade student of Youngshin Girls’ High School. “But because nighttime self-study was mandatory, I had no choice but to stay at school until late in the night. At first, I spent most of the time sleeping and playing games with my cell phone. But as time passed, I started to get bored of spending my time that way. So I studied, and my grades improved dramatically! Some say that yajas should be done voluntarily, but I disagree. I would have never studied if it wasn’t mandatory.”

Among the 40 percent students who answered that nighttime self-study should be mandatory, 90 percent said that they got better grades after they started nighttime self-study. Also, 87 percent of all the students surveyed answered that they tend to concentrate better during yaja time. This shows that mandatory nighttime self-study does help students achieve better grades.

 These two arguments continue to be debated, and people are wondering how schools will change their nighttime self-study regulations.