South Korea Spent 27 Trillion Won on Private Education... Private Tutoring Thrives Despite Declining School-Age Population

Private Education Expenses Continue to Rise
Despite Declining School-Age Population, Financial Burden on Parents Deepens

Despite a severe decline in the school-age population due to a serious low birthrate, private education expenses have been rapidly increasing.

According to the Statistics Korea survey on private education expenses for elementary, middle, and high school students, 79% of domestic students in these categories participated in private education in 2023. Photo by Honam Mun

According to the recent survey on private education expenses for elementary, middle, and high school students by Statistics Korea, 79% of domestic students in 2023 participated in private education. This means four out of five students received private education. The total amount spent on private education for these students reached 27.1144 trillion won. Compared to about 18 trillion won in 2015, it took only eight years for a 50% increase. While the number of elementary, middle, and high school students decreased by about 15%, from 6.09 million to 5.21 million during the same period, the private education market size has continued to grow.

The burden of private education expenses is also evident in surveys. According to a private education perception survey conducted by the civic group "Sagyo Gokjeong Eomneun Sesang" (Society Without Private Education Worries) over ten days in November last year through nationwide parent online communities and SNS, parents were found to spend an average of 1,061,000 won per month on their children's private education. The percentage of respondents who said their children attended three or more private education programs was 47% for infants and toddlers, 60% for grades 1-3 in elementary school, 62% for grades 4-6, 57% for middle school, and 65% for high school. About half of the students across all grade levels participated in three or more private education programs.

The proportion of respondents who felt a "burden" regarding private education expenses was 58% in total (17.0% felt very burdened, 41.0% felt burdened). In particular, one out of two parents of high school students was spending retirement funds on private education expenses.

Despite the decline in the school-age population, the ever-increasing private education expenses have also been highlighted by the British public broadcaster BBC. As the total fertility rate fell to the 0.6 level for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2023, marking the arrival of an "ultra-low birthrate" era, the BBC pointed out that Korea has a unique culture of "private education expenses" even amid a population decline situation surpassing the "Black Death" in medieval Europe. It reported that children born in Korea start expensive classes such as math and English from the age of four, which stems from the societal belief that "children must not be allowed to fail."

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