The stock market opens an hour laterPlanes are groundedAnd police makes sure every student gets to school on time
— Reach for the SKY
South Korean students have studied their whole life for this: The College Scholastic Ability Test, or more commonly referred to as suneung. The entire nation comes to a standstill (quite literally) every second Thursday of November, when more than half a million high school students take this 8-hour long multiple-choice exam that will “make or break their futures”.
This sounds way
too intense for a multiple choice exam, even if the standardized test is used to
determine which university one goes to.
That’s where
“Reach for the SKY” fills in the gaps. A compelling documentary that takes a
hard look at the suneung phenomenon,
the film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2015 and was
curated by Objectifs under their “Stories That Matter” programme earlier this
year.
Co-directed by
Steven Dhoedt and Wooyoung Choi, the Belgium-South Korean production follows
the lives of suneung first-timer
Hye-In, retakers Hyunha and Min-Jun, as well as celebrity English tutor Kim-Ki Hoon. By exposing the arduous preparatory
period leading up to D-Day itself, Dhoedt and Choi retains a highly evaluative
stance towards Korean society and the exam.
Studying becomes a mechanical affair, especially at the Sparta-like
boarding school Min-Jun attends. Strict routine is enforced by discipline
masters. The students start the morning off with a military-inspired role call
and Physical Training, before shuffling off to the various labs and classrooms after
breakfast. Studying through the night is popular and strongly encouraged. If
teachers aren’t available, students can access online material that ensures
learning 24/7. Everyone toils away, but it is uncertain whether their laboring translates
into results. Being away from home, from friends and family and the normalcy of
civilization—to a bystander, that seems like a heavy price to pay for something
that will ultimately just be a piece of paper.
In a chilling scene, a teacher takes positive visualization to
the extreme. He drones on in the darkened classroom, while everyone soaks in their
visualized ideals of D-Day. From their earnest expressions, you can tell that this
is a dream that has provided them peace and respite amidst the studying and
stress. In this moment of silence, they find their purpose to study for the
rest of the day and the morrow.
One of the more peculiar revelations in the film is the omnipresence
of religion and superstition towards the exam. As the exam closes in, parents—mothers
especially—and students turn to the divine. They become regulars at temples and
churches. The fervent prayers of parents last from dusk to dawn, in the hopes
that the higher power would bless their children with easy questions and perfect
grades. Rain or shine, day or night. There is nothing the parents wouldn’t do
for their children.
There is nothing they wouldn’t believe in either. Early on
in the film, Hyunha visits a fortune teller with her mother, hoping for a peek
into her future. The fortune teller asks them to pick out a flag. She nods
approvingly at the chosen colour. “Study hard, and you will be a teacher,” she tells
Hyunha. “It is in your fortune.” Hyunha and her mother doesn’t question. With their
path now a little brighter, they march on.
In this Korean thirst for excellence, the likes of suneung “master” Kim Ki-Hoon are worshipped
like Gods. Glassy-eyed students and determined parents are placing their money
and faith in private education. And it isn’t so much education as it is a
private corporation. Fancy videos, extravagant stage sets and big indoor
arenas—it is almost as if tutoring has become a glorified motivational performance
that doubles as a money-sucking machine. The desperate become the willing consumers
of this multi-million franchise and society makes sure that there’s a fresh
batch every year. Has this gone too far?
Most of “Reach for the SKY” presents a shocking case of South
Korean society. To become the top 1% of the country admitted into the
prestigious SKY universities, students are willing to sit through this limbo of
stress and depression again if it means that they will emerge victorious in the
next suneung exam. The silver lining
is that they are not alone. The entire nation is mobilized in this paper chase.
On the days leading up to the exam, crowds of juniors and teachers and even
strangers would stand at the gates and cheer for the go-sam seniors who will be taking the exam for the first-time.
Although not shown in the film, Korean stars have been known to encourage these
exam takers through social media and fan club pages. It is one thing to go to
war a lone soldier, but another to be sent off like a champion.
The suneung phenomenon
isn’t an unfamiliar situation. In The Straits Times article on private tuition in Singapore, Associate Professor Jason Tan from the
National Institute of Education observes that “parents see the PSLE as a
high-stakes exam, as it will decide the secondary schools and academic streams
that their children will enter”. 7 in 10 parents send their children for
tuition even if they know that it won’t help them significantly. In 2014,
AsiaOne reported that $1 billion is spent on tuition between October 2012 and September 2013, up
from the $650 million spent a decade ago. Extremes in education is a timeless
issue that plagues the region, along with tiger mothers and impossible standards
set by Asian society.
Written by Leck Choon Ling
Trailer for "Reach for the SKY":