Spike in tutoring expenses

Time for government to rethink efficacy of education policy

Private tutoring expenditure by parents with elementary, middle and high school students reached 20.9 trillion won ($17.6 billion) last year, up 7.8 percent from the 19.5 trillion won in 2018 and the biggest increase in a decade.

There must be a reason for their spending to spike despite a fall in student numbers caused by the declining birthrate. Above all, the country can hardly overlook the aggravation of most related indices, such as the participation rate in private education and tutoring expenses per student. The participation rate surged 1.9 percentage points to 74.8 percent, meaning nearly three-quarters of young Koreans students engage in private lessons. Elementary schoolchildren showed the highest participation rate of 83.5 percent, followed by middle school students' 71.4 percent and high school students' 61 percent.

Monthly private tutoring expenditure stood at 321,000 won on average per student, exceeding the 300,000-won mark for the first time. Noteworthy in this regard was the huge gap between the spending of people in the high-income and those in the low-income brackets with the former spending approximately five times more on supplementary education. In Korea, educational opportunities are somewhat dependent on parents' income. Had the nation established the public education system properly, it might not have been lamenting the undue involvement of private education. The unrelenting rise in spending on extra classes shows Korea still has a way to go before normalizing school education.

Now that it has become clear that policies to reduce private tutoring went nowhere, the government should seek a fundamental change in direction. Few would deny frequent changes in the college entrance system has encouraged the growth of private tutoring. Parents are also confused by debates on whether to retain special-purpose high schools such as those focusing on foreign languages or science. What's clear is that few people will oppose a reduction in private tutoring costs through the strengthening of school education. The time is now for the education ministry to start from the ground up by listening to the views of the three principal agents of education ― students, teachers and parents.