South Korea: High school students come home at 11pm.

When I was in South Korea recently, the schools were having their holidays.

My friend's niece is 13 (Gregorian Calendar) this year, and has just entered Middle School (Junior High). Yet, the holidays is not really a holiday. I was informed that she has to spend at least three hours each day "learning" something. Be it from online learning, or practising the piano, or even Japanese.

It is not that I am against "learning" or "studying", but I am wondering if students there are actually able to apply what they have learnt?

Students stay as late as 10 o'clock most nights for whatever reason it is at school. This I hear too, from the boarding master at the backpackers I was lodging in Seoul . He said it was the norm during his schooling years (he's 27 now). High school students go to school at 6am, and they arrive home at 11pm??

His best friends are the ones he spend the whole day in school at.

Eh?

Have you ever watched the Korean Drama "Delightful Girl Choon Hyang"? The drama starts with students in the high school level.

When I first watched the drama about two years back, they actually have students still in school at around 9 to 10 o'clock. I wondered, who in their right mind would allow their children to be at school at this hour?

Apparently that is the norm in South Korea. 

Related Links:
Education in South Korea.