By Lee Hyo-sik
It is widely known overzealous Korean parents spend billions of dollars to send their children to various cram schools. These costly cram schools help the children achieve higher scores on university entrance exams and thus enter prestigious universities.
But the latest government report shows that fervor seems to have subsided a little over the past two years.
Korea’s spending on private education fell for the second consecutive year in 2011 as many parents were forced to cut back on education and other non-essential expenses amid the prolonged economic slowdown, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Friday.
The declining private education expenditure was attributed to the drop in the number of elementary and secondary students and the expanding of after-school programs.
In contrast, many parents and officials from civic groups expressed doubt over the authenticity of the ministry’s report, claiming that private education costs have actually gone up.
The ministry said households spent a total of 20. 1 trillion won ($17.6 billion) last year to educate children at private institutes or hagwon, down 3.6 percent from 20.9 trillion won a year earlier. In 2010, the spending also dropped 3.5 percent from the previous year. The average monthly spending per student last year came in at 240,000 won, unchanged from the previous year.
The ministry analyzed data from a report by Korea Statistics that surveyed 46,000 parents of students attending 1,081 schools across the country. About 71.7 percent of parents said they sent children to at least one learning institute last year after school hours, down from 73.6 percent a year earlier.
“Many parents reduced educational expenditures for their children last year, weighed down by soaring consumer prices and slowing income growth amid the economic slump,” a ministry official said. “A fall in the number of students also explains the declining education spending.’’ The number of elementary, middle and high school students totaled 6.99 million last year, 3.4 percent less than in 2010.
“The drop in private education costs also shows that the expansion of after-school programs and other reform measures taken by the government have worked. We will make more efforts to prop up the public education system and dampen private education,” the official said.
Middle school students spent a monthly average of 262,000 won each to go to cram schools, up 2.7 percent from 255,000 won in 2010. But private education spending by elementary and high school students dropped over the one-year period.
The figure also showed wide differences between provinces and cities, with students residing in North Jeolla Province spending an average of only 155,000 won per month. Students in Seoul spent the largest amount of 328,000 won, followed by Gyeonggi Province at 269,000 won and Daegu with 244,000 won.
The most is spent to study English and math. Spending on these two subjects came to monthly averages of 81,000 won and 70,000 won, respectively.
Parents favored sending their children to private education institutes, spending an average of 122,000 won per month, followed by group and one-on-one tutoring.
Despite the government report that private education expenditure dropped in 2011, many parents and civic groups insist that costs increased in reality.
“It is irritating to hear from the education ministry that households’ private education burden has decreased. It is certainly not true,” said Kim Seong-cheon, vice president of civic group World Without Private Education.
“Korean parents grappling with soaring debts and slowing income growth indeed spent more last year to send children to hagwon than in 2010.”
Kim also disagreed and said the introduction of after-school programs and provision of more TV lectures on EBS actually turned out to be ineffective in reducing private education costs.