Education System : Indonesia vs South Korea, Which One is Better?

Do you know? Education is as important as water. Why? Because people can't survive without water. Same as water, people also can't survive without education.

"Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits" (Wikipedia)

In education there is a system that has function to manage education, it called Education System. But in this post, we don't talk about what is the definition of education system? How to manage education? Or anything that make our head spin around. Hehe :)

What we gonna talk in my fourth post is about the difference between Indonesia's education system and South Korea's Education system, and which one is better?


First Round (Indonesia vs South Korea) : Curriculum

South Korean school follow a national curriculum that developed by Ministry of Education. The national curriculum is revised every five to ten years. The newest curriculum add six general key competencies that reflect 21th century skills.

In primary school, student in grade one and grade two are instructured in Korean Language and Mathematics. These grade focus on basic study skill, problem solving, creativity, and learning through play. The subject like Science, Social studies/Moral education, English, Physical education, and Music and the a
Arts are added for the upper grades.

In lower secondary school, or it usually called Junior High School the subjects include : Korean language, Social studies/Moral education, Mathematics, Science/Information Technology, Physical education, English, Music and the Arts.

In upper secondary school or called Senior High School the subjects include : Korean, Mathematics, English, Korean History, Social studies, Science, Science exploration and Experiments,  Physical education, Arts, and Electives including Technology, home economics, Chinese characters, a Second foreign language, and Liberal Arts. Vocational school students take about 40% general subjects and 60% vocational subjects. First year is a common set of academic courses, second year is a combination of academic and vocational courses, and third year includes specialized vocational courses.

Same as South Korea, Indonesian school also follow national curriculum that developed by Ministry of Education. The newest curriculum is Kurikulum 2013 or Kurtilas. Kurikulum 2013 has four aspects of assessment, namely aspects of knowledge, aspects of skills, aspects of attitude, and behavior. The most important aspect is aspect of attitude and behavior, it is 60% of assessment.

In primary school, the subjects include : Religion and manner education, Pancasila and Civic education, Mathematic, Indonesian Language, Sciences, Social studies, Physical education, Arts (Optional).

In lower secondary school (Junior High School) the subjects devided into 2 groups, include :
Group A (Required)
Religion and manner education, Pancasila and Civic education, Mathematics, Indonesian Language, Science, Social studies, and English
Group B (Required)
Arts (Art / Music / Dance / Theater)
Physical education, Entrepreneurship, Regional Language and Foreign Language (Optional)

In upper secondary school (Senior High School) the subjects devided into 3 groups, include :
Group A (Required)
Religion and manner education, Pancasila and Civic education, Mathematics, Indonesian Language, Science, Social studies, and English
Group B (Required)
Arts (Art / Music / Dance / Theater)
Physical education, Entrepreneurship, Regional Language and Foreign Language (Optional)
Group C, the subject is according to student interest.


Second Round (Indonesia vs South Korea) : School Calendar and School Days

In South Korea, the school calendar has two semesters, the first extending from March through July and the second from September through February. There are summer and winter breaks.

Primary school student generally has class from about 8 A.M until 4 P.M or 4.30 P.M. Same as primary school student, the lower secondary school student generally study from 8 A.M until 4 P.M or 4.30 P.M. Different from others, the upper secondary school has class from about 8 A.M until 9.30 P.M or 10 P.M. Student in the last grade of upper secondary school usually attend hagwons, which are afterschool/weekend tutoring programs.

In Indonesia, the school calendar has two semester. The first semester from the middle of January through the middle of Juni and the second semester from July through the middle of December.

School start from monday until friday, and saturday for extracurricular activities. The time to study for primary school student from 7 A.M until 11 or 12 A.M, the lower secondary school study from 7 A.M until 1 P.M or 2 P.M, and the upper secondary school study from 7 A.M until 3.30 P.M or 4 P.M.

Third Round (Indonesia vs South Korea) : Social Environment

Social environment is not a part of education system, but the social environment affects education itself. That is the reason why i put environment in this discussion. Parents in South Korea, always push their children to study hard, make them attend hagwon, and spend much money to pay  their children school cost. The parents want their children have a great education achievement, so their social level will be in the high level.
Because of that, many student loss their rest time to study and become stress because too much study.

Different from South Korea, in Indonesia parents, usually don't push their children to study hard. Student have their own responsibility to study, without compulsion from their parents. So the happiness of student in Indonesia is higher than South Korea. Eventhough South Korea is the first rank of the best education system in the world, but the happiness of student is lower than Indonesia. That is the reality, not as sweet as korean drama.

Education system in each country has the advantages and disadvantages. The important thing of education is to make people know how to life in this cruel world. Not only to make people smart but also make them know how to survive in this world.

How about you?
Which one is better? Indonesia or South Korea? Write your comment below.

Thank you for reading, i hope it's useful for you. See you in the next post :)