With her right wrist wrapped up, Michelle Wie of Honolulu walks up the second fairway of Waialae Country Club with coach Sean Hogan, right, during a practice round of the Sony Open PGA Tour golf event in Honolulu, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007.



Loss of Students Leaves Institutes Cold

Private institutes are caught between changes in the college entrance examination from 2008 and the decreasing number of students who failed to go to university. As a result, red lights are turned on to recruit students who failed the entrance test.

Starting from next year, records of the university entrance examination will be presented in grades and the reflection ratio of school records, and essay-type tests will be increased. Therefore, cramming to repeat the examination will not be helpful. The response is that repeating the whole procedure to enter a university is not a proper option to choose so students are avoiding the examination process.

According to institute districts around the Busan region on January 9, a preliminary class entitled ‘Repeating the preceding class’ is targeting students who directly choose to repeat the exam. It is not considering the results of regular recruits in classes that were opened at each institute. Results show application rates reaching 50 to 70 percent compared to last year.

In the case of Busan A Institute that opened preceding and early college entry courses on January 8, the institute started with three classes, which is two classes fewer than last year. Persons at the institute said, “Almost everything will be revealed when the first and the second sessions of the regular courses open in the middle of February and early March. However, at the current stage, quite a decrease is expected. The declining tendency towards a safer application shows student fears of repeating the examination procedure. It seems like there are many students waiting to see the regular exam scores and deciding to prepare for the test again.”

B Institute opened just one preceding class on January 3, and does not show much difference from the other institute in that it showed a 50 percent decrease compared to past year. Some C Institute just enrolled enough to open two preceding courses on January 4. On the same day, D Institute was satisfied to open two courses at the same level as last year.

An interested person at the C Institute said, “Movement of students is definitely predictable on the opening day of the regular course. It is certain that the number of students who decided to cram for the top classes of education at Seoul National University and medical or dental colleges are noticeably fewer this year.”

On the other hand, someone at another institute forecast, “Due to fears of repeating the university entrance work, it is more likely for students who once make it to college to choose to study the half-repeating at the same time.”
/ 입력시간: 2007. 01.10. 09:23