Nearly 70 percent of students in middle and high schools said they are discontented with the way the English classes are taught at their schools, a survey showed Wednesday.

According to a survey carried out by a high school teacher in Seoul, about 69 percent of respondents also said they think that school classes alone are insufficient when trying to improve one’s English skills. The survey was conducted on 990 middle and high school students.

In addition, the report suggested a mismatch between what students thought was important and what was being taught primarily at schools. Some 61.4 percent said speaking was the most crucial skill in English, but 58.4 percent of the students thought their classes focused mostly on grammar.

Such a trend appears to have evolved from the test-based culture in Korean classrooms, as 64 percent of students said the teachers’ extensive focus on grammar was because it was the main focus of exams.”

Local experts have pointed out the ineffectiveness of Korea’s English education system as it is mostly based on test scores. A recent report by the Educational Testing Service showed that Korea’s IBT TOEFL were among the lowest among members of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, especially in the speaking section, on which only Japan and Turkey performed worse.

The percentage of students who thought English classes in school were not sufficient increased as students got older ― from 60.6 percent among first year middle school students to 74.7 percent among high school seniors.

On the contrary, 84.4 percent of students thought private education helped them study English, and 73.2 percent said they would get private education if they can.

Naturally, the biggest reason for getting private education was “because I can’t speak English well by just taking school classes,” 40.7 percent of the students said.

The report showed that students are turning to private education due to their lack of trust in the public education system. Koreans are estimated to spend about 6.3 trillion won ($5.8 billion) annually on English private education, which is the highest of all subjects.

“The government needs to provide accurate information about policies regarding English education to parents, who play a pivotal role in deciding whether or not students will get private education,” said Jeong Yu-gyeong, lead author of the survey, who teaches at Dongduk Girls’ Middle School.

“It must also expand training programs for English teachers, so they can offer well-balanced classes.”

In a bid to tackle the high cost of English education, the Education Ministry last year said it would implement an absolute grading system for the English section of the annual college exam in place of the existing curved grading system. But some experts raised questions about whether the measure would be effective, as it may simply intensify the competition in other subjects like math or Korean language.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)