Korean society will retain a high degree of social polarization and income immobility until 2020, sociology experts predicted in a report, citing the country’s strong tendency to value academic cliques and corruption among its leaders.

The research of 19 sociology academics hired by the Finance Ministry said the level of equal opportunity to education in 2020 will reach only 5.12 points on the 10-point scale, growing only slightly fairer from the current 4.67.

“Big gaps in income levels allow only people in the leadership class to take private lessons. The number of people who blame the high level of social injustice on education has been growing,” the report said.

“Gaps among income brackets are to stay as people continue to compete on unequal terms and experience.”

The report cited corruption as the other problem causing the social injustice and public distrust in 2010. The level of law observance by the country’s government officials will reach 4.83 points, the team predicted. The measurement of corruption, represented by the level of transparency between government officials and businesses, stood at 4.29 points for 2020, up from the current 2.5 but still below mid-level, it said.

A number of other factors measuring social justice including transparency of leaders’ decisions and fairness of decisions by the leaders came in between two and three points for 2011.

“The public distrust towards the leadership class is extremely high. The perception is based on disbelief that there is effective apparatus to stop corruption,” the report said.

Meanwhile the sociology experts predicted the level of gender equality to improve to 6.02 points in 2020 from the current 3.65 points.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)