98% of Parents Send Children to Private Education... "Don't Trust Teachers' Abilities"

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] A survey revealed that 98% of parents in South Korea provide private education for their children.

On the 19th, the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI) announced that it conducted the 2019 KEDI Education Opinion Survey (KEDI POLL) last August to September targeting 4,000 adults aged 19 to 74 nationwide, which produced these results.

Among respondents who are parents of kindergarten and elementary to high school students (969 people), 97.9% (949 people) answered that they provide private education for their children. Only 20 parents (2.1%) said they do not provide private education.

The main reasons for providing private education were "to help children get ahead of others" (24.6%) and "psychological anxiety because others are doing it" (23.3%).

When asked if the cost of private education for their children is a burden, 94.7% said it is a burden, an increase of 6.3 percentage points compared to the previous year. Only 3.3% answered that it is not a burden.

Parents generally do not think it is good to start private education early (42.7%), but tend to believe that private education is necessary even if their children can study on their own (35.2%).

Respondents who are parents of elementary to high school students (833 people) expressed a lack of deep trust in the qualifications and abilities of school teachers. The trust score was 2.79 out of 5 points.

56.1% of parents agreed with the idea of inviting experts with field experience as elementary to high school teachers even if they do not have teaching certificates.

For enhancing the quality of elementary to high school education, parents identified "improving the social system focused on academic background" (25.7%) as the most necessary task. This was followed by improving university entrance selection methods (21.1%), enhancing teacher professionalism (18.1%), and diversifying teaching methods (17.9%).

When asked whether discrimination based on university diplomas is still serious in our society, 58.8% of all respondents answered yes. About 58% also believed that academic elitism and university hierarchy will not change significantly in the future.

Regarding the high school credit system scheduled to be introduced in general high schools in 2025, 35.6% of all respondents supported it. The approval rate among parents was slightly higher at 41.8%.

Regarding the reorganization of the high school system, including the abolition of autonomous private high schools and foreign language high schools, 44.1% of all respondents and 50.9% of parents expressed support. Those opposed accounted for only 21.7% of all respondents and 19.8% of parents.

When asked what "success in educating children" means in our society, "children doing what they want and like" (25.1%) ranked first. "Children growing up as individuals with character" (22.4%) was second, followed by "children getting a good job" (21.3%).

The answer "children getting a good job" had been ranked first for four consecutive years from 2015 to 2018, but this year the ranking changed for the first time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.