Should we limit the number of academies??

< Hi~ >

It is 2030. School is not meaningful because EVERY children in Korea go to academies. Students sleep and do their academy H.W. They look smart, but look somewhat sad too. This is NOT a story from the far future. Something similar is happening now. I believe that the number of academies should be limited because it is stressful for students, make students unhealthy, and does not improve scores.

Firstly, academies make students get stressed. These days, students move from one academy to another and come home late. Then they do their homework. Without a lot of time to rest, most students have to go to academies that they do not like to go. That gives them a lot of stress. In fact, Korea ranked 22nd from 22 OECD members in terms of youth's happiness rate. This is a clear proof that students get too much stress from academies. Unfortunately, children getting stressed is not the only problem of academies.

Furthermore, students become unhealthy because of too much academies. They do not have time to sleep, and eat. Students sleep late because of H.W or late academies. If students do not sleep a lot, their immune system becomes weak, and suffer from often diseases. Korean elementary students sleep 8 hours in average, which is lower than OECD average 9~12 hours. Also, students cannot even eat properly because of lack of time. They usually eat fast food because it is served quickly, and is convenient to eat while moving. Fast food contains a lot of sugar and salt, and does not contain a lot of vitamin or calcium. This can lead students to become obese. Obesity can lead to diabetes or stroke. Moreover, fast food packaging uses plastic, which contains kinds of Endocrine disrupters. This can cause cancer. Student's health become worse because of academies.

Finally, academies does not improve student’s scores. The main goal of academies is to teach children to do certain subjects better. However, the result of students from academies does not seem to achieve the academy’s goals. To admit, academy students do not always rank the school tests even though it is easier than academy tests. Some students do not know the basics, which are very important. Also, the way most academy teachers are teaching is to memorize and solve. This way of teaching is wrong because memorizing does not mean understanding. Students who just memorized key points, have hardships in solving advanced problems. And if they cannot even understand the basics, what is the point of solving 1000 problems? It is a waste of time and energy. Lastly, students can be too dependent to academies. They are the ones who are studying, not the academies. The teachers cannot take the SAT or job test instead of students, obviously.

To conclude, academies give students pressure, damages their health, and does not improve the student’s grade, which is why the number of academies should be limited. I believe in a world full of happiness of students because they are the future

of Korea.