Student-athletes log on to compete, not to learn — and no one is planning for what comes after

The controversy over Baejai High School's baseball team mocking the May 18 pro-democracy uprising has reignited debate over the educational gaps facing student-athletes. Systems designed to protect their right to learn — including an online supplementary education platform for student-athletes and a minimum academic achievement requirement — are in place, but their real-world effectiveness is in doubt. Critics say the programs amount to little more than mechanical course completion rather than meaningful learning. Experts are calling for a more tangible education framework that includes career-transition counseling and vocational training.

About 81,000 student-athletes took at least one class through the online platform last year, according to statistics from the Korean Educational Development Institute. As of Thursday, 79,700 students had signed up this year. At that pace, enrollment for the year is expected to surpass last year's total.

On the ground, however, the platform has long drawn criticism for being run as a box-ticking exercise rather than genuine education. Student-athletes often treat it not as a way to make up missed lessons but as a procedural requirement to stay eligible for competitions. Completing the online classes is what clears attendance and learning deficits on paper, but there is no practical way to verify whether students are actually paying attention.

Complaints that the platform prioritizes completion over learning date back to its earliest days. A former Chung-Ang University basketball player, identified only as A, was a first-year high school student in 2017 when the system went nationwide. "Before us, sunbae would often only sit through class until fourth period and then nap in the afternoon before practice," A said. "In our time, we stayed in school until 3 p.m. before joining training. The system did keep student-athletes in school longer, but the online makeup classes had little to do with actual learning." A added that the online sessions were linked to competition eligibility, so students did complete them — but usually by streaming the lectures on their phones during breaks.

B, an eight-year veteran of the women's professional basketball league, recalled being sent to a computer room at school to watch something. "It wasn't an environment where you could focus on your own," she said. C, a teacher with the South Chungcheong Provincial Office of Education who served as homeroom teacher to two high school basketball players last year, said the homeroom teacher's role was mostly limited to tracking attendance. "Coaches handled most of the academic management," C said. "We were just glad if students got through their performance assessments properly."

The deeper problem is that this approach leaves student-athletes with no preparation for life after sport. Those who spend their school years as elite athletes devote nearly all their time to training. But not all of them go on to university or turn professional. The moment a student stops competing — due to injury, poor performance or a change of direction — they face either the same academic competition as their peers or an entirely unfamiliar career path. The current education system for student-athletes offers no preparation for either.

A first-year professional athlete, identified as D, described South Korea's elite sports culture as one of going "all in." Once a student commits to a sport, everything else is set aside, and there is little to fall back on if things do not work out. "The platform I used through last year did not help much with planning my future," D said. "There needs to be education that tells you what you can do when you stop playing. I wish there had been opportunities to learn about fields where you can use your experience as an athlete — things like sports marketing or management."

Kim Jin-yong, who played professional basketball for 13 years before retiring, raised the same concern. "What student-athletes need is not education aimed at top college entrance exam scores, but a basic understanding of how society works," Kim said. "The system can put a student in a chair, but actually getting them to focus on the lesson is a different matter." He suggested sports psychology, training theory and sports industry education as examples of what student-athletes should be learning.

Education authorities acknowledge the problem of superficial completion. The Korean Educational Development Institute recognizes that while the platform plays some role in making up missed classes, there are structural limits to verifying whether students have actually learned anything. "We are aware that some students complete courses only in form, or have someone else take the class for them," said Choi Su-jin, a researcher at the institute. "We plan to conduct research in the second half of the year to improve the platform's effectiveness."

An official from the Ministry of Education's physical and arts education division said the ministry would preserve the system's original purpose of making up missed classes while examining ways to improve actual learning outcomes.

Experts say running the platform purely as an online academic supplement has reached its limits. Keeping student-athletes on the same curriculum track as their peers is not enough on its own. What is needed, they argue, is differentiated education and career guidance — separate tracks for those who will continue competing, those heading into the sports industry, and those who will need to find careers unrelated to sport altogether.

Park Ju-hyung, a professor in the education department at Gyeongin National University of Education, said the platform remains stuck in an outdated model focused on basic academic skills from roughly a decade ago. "The current system reflects a past model that emphasized knowledge and foundational learning," Park said. "As high schools shift toward a credit-based system and competency-centered education, student-athlete education also needs to move beyond a knowledge-first approach." He added that while basic knowledge can be supplemented online, the platform should be paired with offline mentoring — connecting students with sunbae working in the sports industry or marketing — alongside career education and practical, hands-on learning.

Yang Jeong-ho, a professor in the education department at Sungkyunkwan University, said student-athlete education should be divided into three tracks. "At most 10 percent of high school athletes go on to university or professional sports," Yang said. "We need a track for those preparing for university or professional careers, a track for those who want to stay in the sports field using their athletic experience, and a track for those seeking a different career through vocational education unrelated to sport." He added that rather than simply pushing student-athletes through standard academic coursework, the system needs to be designed with their lives after sport in mind.