The political economy of education and skills in South Korea: democratisation, liberalisation and education reform in comparative perspective

Abstract

The success story of Korean economic development is intimately linked with the so-called developmental state; and education policy, as part of centrally orchestrated industrial policy, played a critical role in the country's rapid industrialisation, which allowed for high employment rates, relatively modest social inequality and remarkable social mobility. However, the Korean success story has started to show 'cracks'-with labour market dualisation, rising inequality and 'over-education'. Whilst acknowledging the importance of the East Asian financial crisis as external shock for the Korean political economy, we suggest more fundamental problems in the socioeconomic and socio-political underpinnings of the developmental state and its education and skills formation system for understanding how Korea's economic and education miracle turned into 'education inflation', skills mismatch and social polarisation.

Reconstructing policy transfer in adult and vocational education and training

“…It became apparent that an efficient development state with a functioning administration as well as active employers and trade unions could break away from policy lender dominance in VET cooperation. In addition, there was also a common cultural agreement in South Korea on what was to be understood by 'good' vocational education and training, and here the Japanese experience formed an important reference (Ashton et al, 2002;Chai et al, 2018;Fleckenstein and Lee, 2019;Hultberg et al, 2017;Viktoria and Eunah, 2012). While being a policy borrower, South Korea also became a VET policy lender in developing countries (Barabasch et al, 2017;Chun and Eo, 2012;Kim, 2017;Kim and Gray, 2016;Lumsdaine and Schopf, 2007).…”

Locked in: understanding the ‘irreversibility’ of powerful private supplementary tutoring markets

“…Governments since the 1960s have aimed to curb PST (Lee et al, 2010); however little success has been noted. Fleckenstein and Lee (2018) describe Korean education today as being characterised by 'pathological equilibrium'. How might such a situation have been reached, and might ideas about change through layering and conversion, also institutional lock-in, help us to understand?…”

“…. so in a way private education is damaging public education (Interviewee 13) A 'pathological equilibrium' (Fleckenstein & Lee, 2018)?…”

“…Even given extreme PST spending in Korea, youth unemployment has grown and in 2020 one in ten were unemployed (OECD, 2020b). Education inflation and skills mismatch can be noted -oversupplies of graduates in, for example, the social sciences, relative to employer demand (Fleckenstein & Lee, 2018). High PST spending has fuelled 'edupoverty' and potentially also exacerbated demographic challenges.…”

Partisan politics of skills in middle-income countries: Insiders, outsiders and the vocational education system of Turkey

“…Studies on Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) in East Asia constitute another important line of research on the political economy of VET. It has been argued that NICs moved from the middle-to high-income group much earlier thanks to the 'developmental states' that worked 'closely with industrialists' and promoted VET systems in these countries (Fleckenstein and Lee, 2019;Lee, 2011;Wade, 1990: 295).…”