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EDSoaring education fees

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Parents heavily burdened by private lessons

A joint survey by the Ministry of education and Statistics Korea released last week showed a steep rise in private tutoring for students in elementary, middle and high schools in Korea.

The survey showed that households spent an average of 271,000 won ($253) per child on private lessons every month in 2017, the highest since 2007. The total amount spent on private tutoring reached 18.6 trillion won in 2017, a 3.1 percent increase from the previous year.

Spending on private education has continued to increase even though the number of students has been decreasing due to the low birthrate. The study also showed a widening disparity between well-to-do households and low-income families on the amount spent for private education.

Private tutoring was mostly sought for school subjects such as Korean language, social studies, science, math and English. Parents were also spending heavily for lessons for the arts and sports.

Rising education costs are one of the reasons that keep young Korean couples from having children.

Private lessons are a huge burden for many Korean households that are struggling from paycheck to paycheck amid the long economic slump. Nonetheless, Korean parents have a tendency to set aside money for their children's private lessons no matter what because they do not want their children to fall behind in the competition toward getting into a selective university.

Many parents believe that they would not have to spend so much on private lessons if schools were doing their jobs properly.

It is urgent for the government to come up with measures to raise the quality of public school education.





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