Hagwon in Seoul may shut down on Sundays

Signboards of cram schools are illuminated in Daechi-dong in southeastern Seoul, one of the districts where private institutes are gathered, Oct. 27. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

More than 60 percent of people in Seoul support banning operation of private study institutes, better known as hagwon, on Sundays, an experts' panel under the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said, Tuesday.

Following the survey results, SMOE is likely to seek to revise regulations to force the institutes to close on Sundays, an idea which was one of the key policy goals of SMOE Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon and liberal education chiefs in other regions, aiming to protect children's health and right to rest at least once a week.

The panel conducted two surveys: One was conducted on 171 selected grade school students, parents, teachers and members of the public, and they were given explanations about the proposed Sunday hagwon ban and had discussions with experts over two sessions in October and November; the other was on 34,655 citizens selected randomly.

In the survey on the selected respondents, 62.6 percent supported the ban, while 32.7 percent opposed and 4.7 percent did not answer.

The survey on random members of the public also showed similar results: The ratios of support for the hagwon ban were high among all groups ― students, parents, teachers and others ― reaching over 70 percent among younger students and younger parents.

More than 60 percent of the supporters of the Sunday operation ban said students' health and right to rest should be guaranteed, while 19.6 percent said they want to create an environment for young students to spend weekends with family, and 15.9 percent said the nation needs to lower its reliance on private education.

For those opposing the ban, 55.4 percent said it will infringe on students' right to learn, while 28.6 percent said the ban will result in illegal private tutoring and rather increase costs for private education, and 7.1 percent said students will have to study more during weekdays.

Of those that opposed the ban, 92.4 percent said they were skeptical about the effectiveness of the policy and 73.1 percent worried about the prevalence of illegal private tutoring.

“During our discussion and process of the survey, many questioned whether the ban would be effective. We also believe the government needs to come up with practical measures to strengthen crackdowns by setting up ordinances,” professor Lim Suhng-bin of Myongji University, the chief of the panel, said during a press conference at the SMOE building.

The education office said it would make a final decision on the regulation by the end of February next year.

“We cannot conclude whether we will immediately accept the panel's recommendation, but citizens' opinions will be taken seriously for the final decision,” said an official of the private institute policy division of the SMOE.

Even if the office decides on the ban, it requires the National Assembly's revision of the relevant law as a previous authoritative interpretation stated such a ban on a specific day is impossible through ordinances.

In 2008, a rule was made that hagwon operations must close by 10 p.m. for a similar goal.