By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Korean parents are more concerned with contaminated foods than with North Korea's nuclear weapons, while and four out of every five are feeling stress over paying their children's education fees and about half want to send them abroad to study, the National Statistical Office said Friday.

According to a survey of 42,000 people over 15 years old from 20,000 families nationwide, 48.3 percent of those over 30 with children wanted to send them overseas to study. Among the mostly high-paid professionals or office workers, about half wanted overseas education from elementary school level.

Most of the respondents said they wanted their children to have an international sense of living, but 27.3 percent said they did not like the Korean education system; 16.6 percent wanted their children to learn in a liberal atmosphere; and 13.1 percent wanted them to learn a foreign language easily.

Still, the reality was harsh. About 79.8 percent said education expenses were a burden relative to their income. Families with middle and high school students (73 percent) tended to feel a lot more pressure about money since they paid for additional private tuition.

However, students felt less content with their school life. Barely 51 percent said it was satisfactory. About 42.5 percent, permitted multiple answers, said school education was still effective in gaining knowledge.

What parents were concerned about most was not a possible war or national security issues, but food safety and car accidents. About 69 percent said they were concerned more with toxic substances contained in food or fear of food poisoning than with North Korea's nuclear weapons.

Most respondents thought society has become tougher and scarier from 10 years ago, and more than half said it will get more dangerous in the next 10 years due to crime, financial difficulties and pollution.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr