There are summer and winter breaks, but 10 optional half days at the beginning and end of each break¾which are attended by practically all students¾reduce each of these biennial vacations to the remaining 10 days. A typical day finds high schoolers studying before school begins at about 8:00 A.M.
The academic year in Korea lasts from March until February. The first term lasts five months, March to July, and is followed by a month of summer holidays. The second term starts in September and ends in February, with a one-and-a-half-month winter break starting at mid-December and ending late January.
Public school in Korea starts in March and ends around January. Their large vacation is not during the summer (although there is a summer vacation that is approximately one month long) but during Lunar New Years in the beginning of the year.
According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2022, about 35.6 percent of the surveyed students answered that they felt stress in their school life during the past two weeks. The stress level of college students or above was higher than that of elementary, middle, and high school students.
Alcohol. The legal drinking age in Korea is 19 years of age. Although it is legal to drink alcohol in public, disorderly conduct under the influence of alcohol can result in hefty fines and a visit to the police station.
There are summer and winter breaks, but 10 optional half days at the beginning and end of each break (which are attended by practically all students) reduce each of these biennial vacations to the remaining 10 days. South Korea has 11 official holidays a year.
Teachers typically move from room to room, while students stay in one place. Students return to the school library to study or attend private schools or tutoring sessions until between 10:00 P.M. and midnight. They return home where they may have a snack, listen to music, or watch television before going to bed.
The FSI puts Korean as a Category V language. Which means, it's one of the hardest languages to master. They estimate 2200 hours of study before you can reach fluency in Korean. Or 88 weeks of extremely intense study.
In the southern hemisphere, summer occurs in December, January, and February. In most states, schools have 6–7 weeks of summer holidays, usually starting 7–10 days before Christmas, and ending the week after Australia Day (any time from January 27th to February 5th, depending on where you live).
As we mentioned, South Korean students are in school from 8 or 9 AM until 3 or even 5 PM, but they will then go to night school or work with private tutors until 10 PM.
Students used to go to school on Saturdays; this was simply to maximize the study time. However, this law changed in 2000, meaning that students don't go to school on Saturdays anymore in South Korea. Although you no longer need to go to school on Saturdays, you are expected to attend 야자 (yaja).
Primary education in South Korea is compulsory and free. At the age of six, children start primary school near their residence, with automatic progression to the next grade each year. An accelerated grade advancement system was introduced and allows gifted and talented children to skip grades.
Korean high school students have a 16 hour school day
The average high school student generally has class from about 8am until 9:30pm or 10pm. For the average Korean high school student, the goal is to get into good college and often, the competition is high.
Education system in Korea
Korean education uses a 6-3-3-4 single ladder system - six years in elementary school, three years each in middle school and high school, and four years in university.
China School Hours
In large cities like Shanghai, for example, Chinese students spend 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at school with an hour and a half for lunch, but in other areas, kids get to head home for nap time at lunch!
Students in grades 5-6 reported an sTST of 8.15±1.12 hours, those in grades 7-9 8.17±1.20 hours, and students in grades 10-12 6.87±1.40 hours.
School hours are generally from 8.45am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday. In a typical school day, there are five to eight lessons, ranging from 40 minutes to one hour. There are two breaks in the school day – a morning tea break (recess) and a lunch break, both of which are supervised by teachers.
In Korea, mothers do not need to prepare children's lunch boxes since every school has its own kitchen to provide students' fresh and healthy meals to ensure balanced diet (The fees are generally minimum and in Seoul, most of the schools provide free lunch to students.).
Expectations are Always High: Due to tight-knit families and the hard-working nature of the people of South Korea, expectations of the students are consistently above the bar from a very early age. There everyone is hardworking. Every student is required to spend 2/3 of their day in the school system.
Korean children have only about 6 weeks of summer vacation, usually from mid-July to late August, but university students keep trains and buses busy throughout the season. Be sure to book rooms in popular destinations (such as Busan's beaches, which get super-crowded June-Aug) well in advance.