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Just imagine finishing school and then heading straight on to night school – every single day.

Life at school in South Korea is totally different, and three pupils from Pembrokeshire saw first hand just how intense it is.

As part of a school swap experiment, three pupils from Ysgol Dewi Sant in St Davids went to two different schools in Seoul as part of a BBC documentary.

The trio met fellow students who instead of a school day between 9am and 3.30pm, study for between 14 and 16 hours every day.

While it means that South Korea ranks highly in the Pisa rankings, it can have devastating impacts on students.

"It’s lessons, lessons and more lessons"

One South Korean student, Do Yen Kim, said he studied 16 hours a day for three years to get into Seoul University.

But he said friends have taken their own lives because of the stress.

Tommy Reynolds, 16, said “The main difference is their days are much longer. They go from 8am until 10 or 11pm. They don’t really have much time for extra curricular activities. There’s no time for that. It’s lessons, lessons and more lessons.”

When the South Korean students are not studying at school, they attend private night schools called hagwons. A curfew of 10pm is now being enforced by the government, but it doesn’t stop pupils going home and working on their own.

(Image: BBC Wales)

“It’s totally different,” he said. “The lessons are totally traditional and they’re very straight forward. They do lessons on a chalkboard and there’s no class discussion or anything like that. You have just got to copy it down.

“I didn’t enjoy it at all. It’s the way you can’t get different interpretations from people. If you don’t understand something you had to go home and study it there.”

In his spare time, Tommy plays rugby and is soon to play the main part of Danny in the school production of Grease.

“Through those I get to learn different social skills, communication skills and that’s one thing they definitely lack.”

"It makes you appreciate our school so much more and the freedom we have"

Sarah Jenkins attended a girls school during her spell in South Korea.

“Their work ethic is incredible because they’re so focused on their work where here, obviously we’re not as focused but I think that’s mainly down to the individual.

“In South Korea, everyone there is aware that straight away, from a young age, this is what we have to do and that ethic is pushed on them, with us it is down to the individual.”

She said they do still have a chance to see their friends in school but not activities out of school.

“That was quite strange. I am always meeting up with the girls outside of school. It’s quite sad and their social skills just aren’t there. When I met the boys’ hosts, one of them hadn’t spoken to a girl for three years.

“When they saw me, they didn’t know what to do. I sympathise with them because their childhood had kind of slipped away from them which is really sad because they don’t get the chance to become rounded pupils, they just have their heads stuck in a textbook.

“They have got chances to go to different clubs and you can do debate or sports but it’s still a strict lesson.

“There’s no activities at lunchtime or choir or instruments.

“It makes you appreciate our school so much more and the freedom we have. The kind of clubs and activities we have, it makes school much easier and school life much nicer.

“If I wouldn’t have had the kind of relationship I have with my teachers, the last year of my GCSEs would have been really tricky.”

"Students seem to listen more and have more respect"

Ewan Miles, 17, is on course to get three A*s and is hoping for a place at Oxford.

He says there are some things that could be learnt from schools in South Korea.

“The thing I would pick out from the trip is the respect they have for their teaching staff and staff. It’s integral to their culture. Teachers are much more powerful in their positions and students seem to listen more and have more respect. If we could instil that here it would be better, it would flow better and work better.”

* School Swap Korean Style can be seen on BBC One Wales at 10.40pm on Monday, November 28 and Tuesday, November 29.