Spent '27 Trillion' on Private Education Last Year... Record High for 3 Consecutive Years

Subject with Highest Private Education Spending: 'English'
Average Monthly Private Education Cost per Person: 434,000 KRW
Ministry of Education "Continuing Measures to Reduce Burden such as Neulbom School"

Last year, the total private education expenses for elementary, middle, and high school students exceeded 27 trillion won, marking the highest record for three consecutive years. The participation rate in private education and the average monthly private education expenses per student also increased compared to the previous year. The subject with the highest private education expenses was 'English.'

The Ministry of Education and Statistics Korea announced the results of the "2023 Elementary, Middle, and High School Private Education Expenses Survey" on the 14th. This survey was conducted nationwide from May to June and September to October last year, targeting about 3,000 elementary, middle, and high schools and 74,000 students.

The survey results showed that the total private education expenses last year were approximately 27.1 trillion won, a 4.5% increase from 26 trillion won the previous year. Among these, elementary schools accounted for the largest share with 12.4 trillion won, followed by middle schools with 7.2 trillion won, and high schools with 7.5 trillion won. The total private education expenses have set a record high since the survey began in 2007, surpassing the 23.4 trillion won recorded in 2021.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Park Eun-young, head of the Welfare Statistics Division at Statistics Korea, said, "In 2020, due to COVID-19, private education was significantly reduced, which caused a sharp decline in expenses. The subsequent rebound over the past two years has led to a substantial increase in total private education expenses." However, the Ministry of Education explained that the year-on-year growth rate has been slowing down, with 21.5% in 2021, 11.8% in 2022, and 5.8% last year.

Earlier, the Ministry of Education had set a target for total private education expenses for 2024 at 24.2 trillion won, reducing the 2022 figure of 26 trillion won by 1.8 trillion won in its performance plan submitted to the National Assembly last year. However, this target was not met. A Ministry of Education official stated, "We acknowledge and regret not achieving our target, but there were time lag issues related to policies aimed at reducing private education expenses, such as excluding killer questions last year." The official added, "Considering the current upward trend, we expect to significantly reduce expenses by around next year."

In this survey, the private education participation rate was 78.5%, a 0.2 percentage point increase over the same period. By school level, elementary schools had the highest participation rate at 87.0%, followed by middle schools at 75.4%, and high schools at 66.4%. The average monthly private education expense per student was 434,000 won, a 5.8% increase from the previous year. Contrary to participation rates, high school students had the highest average expense at 491,000 won, followed by middle school students at 449,000 won, and elementary school students at 398,000 won.

Among general academic subjects, English was the most expensive subject for private education, with an average monthly expense of 128,000 won per student. Mathematics ranked second at 122,000 won, followed by Korean at 38,000 won, and social studies and science at 19,000 won. Even when narrowing the sample to only students participating in private education, the order remained the same: English at 248,000 won, mathematics at 233,000 won, and Korean at 148,000 won.

The proportion of students spending more than 700,000 won per month on private education, classified as 'high-cost private education,' was 22.0%, an increase of 2.9 percentage points from 19.1% last year. In Seoul, metropolitan cities, and small to medium-sized cities, the proportion of students spending over 700,000 won per month on private education was highest at 20-30%, whereas in rural areas, the largest proportion (13.3%) spent between 100,000 and 200,000 won.

Households with higher income levels participated more in private education and spent more. High-income households with a monthly average income of 8 million won or more spent an average of 671,000 won per student per month on private education, which is 3.7 times higher than low-income households earning less than 3 million won (183,000 won). The participation rate was 87.9% for high-income households and 57.2% for low-income households.

Among high school students, those with top academic performance participated more actively in private education and spent more money. Students in the top 10% spent 616,000 won on private education, about twice as much as students in the bottom 20%, who spent 336,000 won. The participation rate was 76.1% for the top 10% and 53.9% for the bottom 20%.

By region, Seoul had the highest private education expenses. The average monthly private education expense per student was 628,000 won in Seoul, 427,000 won in metropolitan cities, 425,000 won in small to medium-sized cities, and 289,000 won in rural areas. Seoul's private education expenses were 2.17 times higher than those in rural areas.

The Ministry of Education stated that it will continue to implement measures to reduce private education expenses, such as operating Neulbom Schools. It also plans to support local education offices in actively promoting policies tailored to regional circumstances and strengthen accountability by linking evaluations of metropolitan and provincial education offices. Lee Young-chan, Director of Digital Education Planning at the Ministry of Education, said at the briefing, "Through the introduction of the Responsible Education Grade System, exclusion of killer questions from the College Scholastic Ability Test, and normalization of public education, we will alleviate excessive private education and make every effort to reduce private education expenses in 2024."

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