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Spending on private tutoring hits all-time high

February 26, 2016

By Chung Hyun-chae

Monthly spending on private education by parents of students at elementary, middle and high schools last year hit an all-time high of 244,000 won ($193) per student, a government survey showed Friday.

The Ministry of Education said that spending on individual private tutoring has been increasing for three consecutive years since 2013.

The survey was conducted jointly by the education ministry and Statistics Korea online from June through October last year with 43,000 parents from 1,244 primary and secondary schools nationwide taking part.

In particular, the amount of expenses for music, art and physical education stood at 53,000 won in 2015, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier, while the spending on academic subjects such as English, mathematics and Korean fell slightly by 0.3 percent to 190,000 won from the same period in the previous year.

By region, parents spent the highest amount of 338,000 won ($272) a month per child in Seoul, followed by Gyeonggi Province with 265,000 won and Daejeon with 254,000 won.

Spending on private tutoring for elementary schools students stood at 231,000 won, down 0.4 percent from the previous year. Parents of middle school students increased spending by 1.9 percent to 275,000 won a month; while spending on tutoring high school students was recorded at 236,000 won, up 2.9 percent.

The survey showed that the government’s ban on prior learning in the after-school programs has backfired, making parents spend more on private tutoring.

The findings showed that 72 percent of the students opted for private tutoring as schools didn’t allow prior learning.

The education ministry said, however, that the total amount of expenses for private tutoring was reduced 2.2 percent to 1.78 trillion won in 2015 from the previous year due to the declining number of students.

The total number of students fell to about 6 million in 2015, down 3.1 percent from 2014.

“When adjusting for inflation, the real individual private tutoring costs have also decreased since 2010,” a ministry official said.

Reflecting the growing demand for physical education and art classes in private education, the education ministry plans to expand related programs in after-school programs.

“The best way to cut private tutoring cost is to fortify the public education system,” said Shin Ik-hyun, director general of the policy planning office at the ministry. “With this goal, we will work to successfully establish free-learning and career education at schools.”

Reflecting the results of the survey, the ministry vowed to take measures to cut private tutoring costs.