By Kwon Mee-yoo
South Korea’s public education spending per student was lower than the average of other OECD member states, according to the organization’s 2010 edition of Education at a Glance (EAG) released Tuesday (KST). The survey was conducted on 39 countries — 31 OECD countries plus eight others — based on 2008 statistics.
Under purchasing power parity (PPP), the conversion index used to compare price levels for different countries, Korea’s per student public education spending stood at $5,437 for elementary schools, lower than the OECD average of $6,741 — for middle schools this rose to $7,860, compared with the OECD average of $8,267.
The public education expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 7 percent — 4.2 percent from the government and 2.8 percent from the private sector.
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) pointed out that the government needs to spend more on public education.
“There is little difference in the EAG index in 2009 and 2010, which indicates that the government did not invest properly in education,” a KTU official said. “Private sector education spending is still more than double the OECD average and we can assume that Korean education still relies heavily on an individual’s economic strength.”
For higher education institutes, the private sector accounts for 79.3 percent of education spending, while the OECD average is only 30.9 percent. Korea placed second after Chile, where 85.6 percent of the expenditure comes from the private sector.
Korea’s average annual spending on students at national universities and graduate schools ranked second at $4,717, following the U.S. at $5,943.
Korea did show some strength in higher education. The rate of finishing high school was 79 percent, higher than the OECD average of 71 percent.
Among the younger demographic group from 25- to 34-year-olds, 98 percent of them finished high school and 58 percent went on to higher education, both of them topping the OECD rankings.
The rate of international students in higher educational institutions was 1.3 percent, relatively lower than the OECD average of 8.5 percent.
“However, Korea had the highest rate of increase of foreign students from 2000 to 2008,” the report said.
Korea and New Zealand attracted more international students in that period, while overseas students in major countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom fell.