Author: Davis, Crystal D
Date published: December 8, 2011
America may be trying to increase its number of college grads, but South Korea, where more than 60 percent of citizens have higher education degrees, is trying to do the opposite. Concerned that the college grads aren't finding jobs - 40 percent are unemployed - Korean officials are trying to promote the value of getting only a high school diploma or vocational certification to its citizens, The Washington Post reported recently. "Reckless entrance into college," President Lee Myung-bak has said, is "bringing huge losses to households and the country alike." In addition to the unemployment problem, the Post found that Korean officials think the college crisis is to blame for Korea's low birth rate (parents can't afford more than one child because of the expensive tutoring involved) and for implementing a system of inequality, in which only those who can afford to be tutored get to college.
