Students attend a class at a middle school in Seoul in this October 2023 photo. Yonhap

Park Myung-shin, a mother of a 14-year-old middle schooler, says she is often worried about her daughter's lack of basic economics and finance knowledge.

"My daughter spends hours studying a range of subjects every day just as many other Korean students do, but what she learns at school does not appear to be practical enough for her to grasp economic issues in real life," Park said. "For instance, she gets confused about why higher demand and lower supply of goods would lead to an increase in prices."

Park's daughter is one of many Korean students whose economic understanding declines as they advance to higher education, indicating the growing need for the government to improve its educational curriculum.

A 2024 survey released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Wednesday showed that sixth graders at elementary schools nationwide scored 61.5 points on average on questions related to economic issues.

The average scores, however, declined for older age groups — 51.9 points for middle school seniors and 51.7 points for high school sophomores.

The survey has been carried out every two years since 2020 under a broader research project aimed at exploring the current economic education curriculum and making improvements when necessary.

What was more worrisome about last year's survey results was that scores dropped for each of the three groups from 2022. Back then, the scores were 3.9 points higher for elementary schoolers, 6.3 points higher for middle schoolers and 5 points higher for high schoolers.

In terms of individual items, the correct response rates for questions related to rational choice, e-commerce and investment were high, while the correct response rates for fundamental economic concepts and principles such as inflation, supply and demand and opportunity cost were low.

"The finding suggests the country, despite its education fever, has serious shortcomings when it comes to financial education," said Jung Ho-chul of Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), a civic activist group.

Jung referred to the government's efforts to nurture the financial industry and that "it should carry out a corresponding reform in order to reach the goal."

Citing the 2024 survey result, he analyzed that the students seemed to have a better understanding of terms and issues that they are familiar with in daily life.

For instance, middle schoolers scored higher than 60 points on average concerning questions about electronic commerce and means of payment. But they scored only a little more than 30 points on average when asked about opportunity costs as well as supply and demand.

For high school students, the average score was higher than 70 points for questions on employment and higher than 60 points for questions on electronic commerce.

But they scored lower than 30 points on average for questions on comparative advantage and current account surplus.

Asked about primary means to learn knowledge on economic issues, elementary and middle school students said they do so through classes, whereas high school students picked TV and social media.

"The finding is a possible indication that upper-level students are not attracted to current financial education," Jung said.