President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday the success of her trademark “creative economy” initiative hangs on establishing a new education model that encourages students to think creatively, in a departure from the conventional ones focused on rote memorization of facts.

“Students suffer from the excessive ‘education fever’ and the immense stress of having to go to a high-ranking school, and are deprived of the joy of learning,” Park said during the symposium “Achieving HOPE (Happiness of People through Education): Innovation in Korean Education for a Creative Economy” held at Coex in southern Seoul.

“Memorization-based education programs that lack real-life experience are not in keeping with the global educational trend of fostering creative problem-solving abilities.”

The event, cohosted by the Korean Educational Development Institute and the World Bank, invited renowned economic and education experts to discuss the ways education can contribute to propelling a creative economy. The terminology refers to using ideas, information and communication technology while converging existing industries to ultimately create high-value products that contribute to the economy, according to the Park administration.

“In this era, the future of an individual and even the entire country depends on innovation via creative ideas,” she said, noting that Korea can look at successful education models of other advanced countries and apply them to the considerable know-how it has accumulated over the decades. This process will help the country to create a model that allow students to be happy and creative, the president added.

She said Korea is planning to share some of the success it had garnered at the United Nations’ World Education Forum next year, which is scheduled to be hosted here.

Many of the experts said that much of Korea’s education is focused on developing students’ “cognitive” skills ― namely language and mathematical reasoning ― and not enough on noncognitive skills, such as the abilities to keep trying and to work as a team.

Korea Creative Economy Research Center president Lee Min-hwa said the very backbone of what enabled the country to achieve rapid economic development in the past ― refusal to accept failure, education that focused on getting the right answer ― has become a hurdle for Korea in adopting a creative economy.

“Students excel in the classroom, but rank near the bottom among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of entrepreneurship,” he said. “Creativity and failure go hand in hand, which means education focused only on finding the right answer is not compatible with a creative economy.”

Claudia Costin, senior director of education global practice at the World Bank, echoed Lee and emphasized the importance of openness to failure. “Most children learn through failure, which contributes to their growth,” she said.

Korean students’ accomplishment in cognitive skills largely exceed those of students in the United States, but the former can learn from the latter in terms of teaching students to take more risks and be more open toward diversity, she said.

Costin also stressed the importance of students’ autonomy, saying it would help them boost creativity.

Despite some of the shortcomings, speakers expressed optimism toward Korea’s capability to change.

“What makes me optimistic (about Korea) is not only what it did in the past, becoming a prosperous nation, but what strikes me is the intention to improve even further and challenge its culture,” said Costin. “A country willing to always reinvent itself needs to be celebrated.”

World Bank Chief Jim Yong Kim praised the competence of Korea’s education system and said it has the potential to foster students’ creativity, but added its excessive focus on cognitive skills is stifling students. He said the education authorities must work toward balancing students cognitive’ and noncognitive skills.

One way Korea can promote a creative, innovative economy is by using its human capital to the fullest extent, according to Kim.

“Of special importance are more open and inclusive workplaces that reward ideas based on quality, not hierarchy, and increase women’s labor force participation, earnings and career advancement,” he said. Kim pointed out that while more women than men graduated from university in 2012, the gender disparity of workers aged 15-64 was over 20 percent ― 77.6 percent of men to 55.6 percent of women.

By equalizing the labor participation rate over the next 20 years, Kim said the country could increase its gross domestic product by more than 0.5 percent annually, along with increasing personal income.

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