The International Schools Review Forum

I keep seeing this term "hagwon" being used in terms of some schools in Korea.

What is a hagwon ?

A cram school. Somewhere the kids go after school. Basically ESL schools for English speakers.

Hagwons are centers where students go after school or on the weekends to learn or practice a variety of skills. Their 'teachers' do not have to be certified, and are often recent college grads from North America. I work in Korea and many of my students go to Hagwons. A lot of it is 'kill and drill', though children can attend hagwons for just about everything; art, tennis, science, etc. I think they do more harm then good, but that is just my opinion. I have a lot of stressed out 3rd grade students who spend many hours in hagwons.

Juku is pretty common in Japan, as is buxiban in Taiwan and hagwon in Korea. All of my Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese students attended almost every day after school, even though they were no longer living in their home countries. (If enough Koreans move to one area, someone will open a hagwon.) It makes for some exhausted, overworked children.

A Hagwon is traditionally a cram school, though they often have large ESOL programs as well. In the states you would see them as tutoring or study centers such as Sylvan, Learning Tree, or Kaplan where the focus is more on test (SAT/ACT) prep or AP prep.

In Japan they are called Juku for the Cram portion and Eikaiwa for the ESOL side. In Taiwan they are called Buxiban
In HK and other regions they are called tutorial schools.