139 Cases of Illegal Activities Detected in English Kindergarten Names and High Tuition Fees at Early Childhood English Academies

Among the English academies for young children, which have been identified as the main cause of the burden of private education expenses, many were found to have promoted themselves as kindergartens or charged excessively high tuition fees.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 12th that it conducted a full-scale investigation of 382 English academies for young children in Seoul and detected 139 cases of illegal private education activities at 95 locations.

On the 11th, visitors are receiving English education consultations at the 43rd Seoul International Early Childhood Education Exhibition & Kids Fair held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The photo is not directly related to the article. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

English academies for young children have been criticized as the main cause of private education expenses because their tuition fees are around 1 million KRW per month, more than twice the cost of university tuition. This is the first time the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has conducted a full-scale investigation.

First of all, since these are not public education institutions, it is illegal to use the term "English Kindergarten."

The inspection results revealed 13 cases of violations related to the use of the name, 32 cases related to tuition fees, 29 cases of violations in posting, display, and notification, and 7 cases of false or exaggerated advertising, totaling 139 violations at 95 locations.

Regarding tuition fee violations, two places collected fees exceeding the reported amount, and 30 places failed to report changes in tuition fees.

There was also one case where the academy did not check for criminal records related to sexual offenses or child abuse.

One case involved false advertising by pretending to have native English-speaking instructors when there were none.

There were also five cases where the term "academy" was replaced with "English Kindergarten" and one case where it was replaced with "Academy" in the academy's name.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education imposed administrative measures including one suspension of instruction, 85 penalty points and correction orders, and nine administrative guidance cases. Additionally, fines totaling 10.8 million KRW were imposed on 27 cases.

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