By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
A lawmaker put forward a plan Monday for a state-subsidized afterschool English program in an effort to narrow the so-called English divide between children from upper- and lower-class families.
In a speech during a National Assembly interpellation session, Rep. Chung Doo-un of the governing Grand National Party described English as one of the main stress factors for parents of low-income families as their children have a far less chance of getting quality private English teaching.
``The main stress factor for parents having children attending high school is math, while that for parents having children going to elementary and middle school is English,'' said the lawmaker.
Chung, a key proponent of the campaign to reduce household spending on private tutoring, has proposed a set of measures to make his initiative work.
According to a survey, a third of household spending on private tutoring is spent on English education.
The less families earn, the greater their burden.
Experts say children from upper-class families have more of a chance of getting a variety of quality foreign language programs, leading to the deepening English divide with their counterparts from working-class families.
To narrow the gap, Chung called on education authorities to consider free English programs for children when official school programs are over.
The education ministry opposed the plan to introduce the free afterschool program due to budgetary constraints and the limited availability of qualified English teachers.
Chung argued that these setbacks could be settled when the government phases in the free program targeting children from working-class families.
He proposed that the education authorities consider a variety of measures such as linking on-line and off-line English programs in the afterschool program to settle the monetary constraint.