Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Parents pay dearly for preschoolers' English education
/Korea Times file
By Bahk Eun-ji
The fees of private English institutes for preschoolers have soared, data showed Thursday.
According to an Education Ministry analysis submitted to Rep. Jeong Jin-hoo of the minor opposition Justice Party, parents pay 752,000 won ($632) a month a child, on average, for private English institutes. This is 8.5 percent, or 58,770 won, higher than the previous year. The inflation rate has been 2.6 percent for the past two years.
By cities and provinces, the rise for institutions in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, was highest, up 264,000 won, or 20.3 percent, on 2013. Seoul parents pay 1.02 million won, a 12.5 percent increase compared with 903,068 won in 2013.
Incheon recorded 1.01 million won, up 9.1 percent from 926,251 won in 2013.
Rep. Jeong said the government has to act to reduce the burden on parents.