When the bell rang to signal the start of a music class at a high school in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, last month, most students continued chattering away as if they didn’t hear the bell.

“Today, we are going to watch a movie,” the teacher said as she turned on “The Professional,” an action film.

This is a common occurrence in music classes at middle and high schools throughout the country.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced a new policy of excluding music, sports and art from internal assessments in June 2007 to “decrease the pressure for students to receive higher marks for the three subjects.”

“This policy is outrageous,” said Park Jee-young, a music teacher at Pohang High School.

“Making students concentrate and be interested in music has always been the greatest frustration for music teachers, but it has become impossible after the implementation of this new policy.”

Teachers like Park throughout the country are expressing discontent.

Park Man-yong, the manager of the Joint Countermeasure Committee for Normalizing Education, who is also an art teacher at Busan Yeokgok Middle School, said the aim of the policy is illogical.

“Music, art and physical education are not sources of intensified competition. If they really wish to alleviate the tension, the government should have done something about math or English classes,” said Park during a discussion session organized by the Korea Educational Development Institute in June 2007.

When asked whether this policy will pay off, Chung Taek-hee, the director of assessment research headquarters, said that officials only did what they were told to do.

“Research was done on music, physical education and art only as requested by the Education Ministry. It’s tough to say whether there has been separate research on which subjects are most burdensome for students,” said Chung.

However, many students claim this policy is not the only problem.

“We don’t give our full attention to music classes not only because they have little impact on our academic records, but also because they are uninteresting,” said Kim Chi-eun, a student at Chungdam High School in southern Seoul.

“The policy certainly has taken its toll,” said Park Dong-il, a student at Whimoon High School in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul.

“But teachers need to realize that there has always been dissatisfaction regarding these subjects. Students will pay more attention when the classes are more interesting.”

By Jeon Ho-jin