By Kim Young-jin
With a new school year starting up at international schools, so too are the familiar, hopeful rituals: the zipping of backpacks and meeting of teachers; the new, more challenging homework.
But for a growing number of parents who send their children to such schools, some of which have already begun classes, the hope quickly fades to serious financial stress.
Each year, tuition costs a whopping 20 to 30 million won ($18,700-28,000) and many wonder how they can afford their children’s education. Some parents even change schools.
The problem has many calling for education reforms to better care for the children of foreign residents.
“When my child started kindergarten, it was 13 million won per year. Now she is entering middle school and it costs 20 million won,” said one parent who took his daughter out of one of the leading international schools in Seoul. “For me, it is not sustainable.”
“It was ridiculous,” said one English teacher and photojournalist, who was forced to pull his child out after four years at one international school. “It got to where we had no money left over.”
Many foreign residents work for large companies on packages that subsidize their children’s education costs. The situation is far different for those living off the local economy with earnings comparable to the Koerean middle class.
Among the popular primary schools, the high-end Seoul Foreign School charges high school students 29.9 million won a month, an increase of some 2.7 million won from last year.
This does not include fees for buses and other services, which can tack on up to 4.5 million won.
Dulwich College in Seoul costs 24.8 million won. On the lower end of the tuition scale fees at Yongsan International School of Seoul total around 20 million won.
Some 13,000 students attend 47 international schools here, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. To qualify, students must be a permanent resident of another country or have lived overseas for five years.
The non-profit schools typically have excellent facilities. Some offer financial aid, but one parent said such offerings were quite modest at his child’s school.
Besides the foreign schools, foreign residents have two main options: local schools, where Korean language capabilities are required, and homeschooling.
The English teacher said his half-Korean daughter, who he recently pulled out of a foreign school, has faced huge challenges in the local Korean school.
“The teacher-student relationship is much different at the foreign schools,” he said. “She used to beg us not to send her to Korean school. We feel like we’re being held hostage.”
He said his daughter had received corporal punishment, another reason his family is considering educating her elsewhere.
Anne Ladouceur, who runs the resource site Korea4expats.com, said the problem is a thorn in the government’s efforts to make the country more attractive to foreign investment by bringing in international schools.
“The cost makes education inaccessible for a great many people and has a negative impact on direct foreign investment. I believe it keeps people out of the country,” she said.
Ladouceur said medium-sized businesses, which could be the next wave of investors in Korea, could be dissuaded from entering the market because of the costly education and go to other countries that offer a wider range of schooling choices.
She said the costs could also dissuade high-quality foreign teachers from entering the country, dealing another blow to the education system.
The exorbitant fees seem to be only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the international schools. Many say the high tuition contributes to a rabid sense of elitism. Others complain of curricula overly focused on American- and Christian-based material.
To address the issue, the first parent suggested that Korean schools in areas with a heavy foreign population should offer international curricula.
Such schools would serve as a middle ground between Korean and international schools, he said. “I don't think importing more
foreign schools is an answer.”