One of the great contradictions of South Korean culture has been the concern for
assigning rank and status in a society where egalitarian ideals were strong. There was an
informal ranking system for secondary schools and universities that ran counter to the strong
egalitarian strain in South Korea culture. In public policy this egalitarian tradition was expressed
as “uniformity of education.” It took two forms. One was the idea that educational opportunity
should be open to all. As the debates over the Education Law illustrated, there was a strong
belief in universal educational opportunity. This idea stemmed from the spread of egalitarian
and democratic ideas that rejected the rigid and largely hereditary class structure that had
characterized the country to the end of the nineteenth century. The American missionaries,
Japanese rulers and Korean intellectuals exposed to modern ideas all preached a sort of
democratic ideal of a society based on merit. The concept of equal opportunity had some basis
in the nation’s traditions as well. Confucianism had always stressed the idea of merit as the only
valid criterion for judging an individual and awarding status to him. Within the Confucian
school of thought was another powerful idea: that each person had the capability to be a moral
exemplar to provide leadership in society. Since education was a key to moral perfection,
education by implication was something that any person could utilize in order to manifest his
virtue. In practice, access to higher educational institutions and to the civil examinations was
restricted to members of elite lineages, but with the breakdown of the old order in Korea, a
popular belief that this educational avenue should be open to all emerged. Millions of Koreans
clung to this idea with great conviction and were intolerant of unfair access to schooling.