"Suspected Tuition Overcharges: 1 in 5 Academies Found to Have Illegally Raised Fees"

In Seoul, 5 out of every 100 private academies and tutoring centers charge additional tuition fees under various other categories besides the official lesson fees, and about one-fifth of these institutions were found to have raised lesson fees through indirect or unlawful means.

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On April 21, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that, between February and April of this year, it conducted a special inspection of 730 (5.6%) out of 13,049 private academies and tutoring centers in Seoul that were suspected of charging excessively high lesson fees or collecting additional fees under other categories. As a result, the office detected a total of 228 violations at 167 institutions (22.9% of those inspected).

This inspection was carried out to ease the financial burden of private education costs on parents and to restore proper management practices regarding lesson fees at academies and tutoring centers, in line with the government's special initiative to manage the cost of living. The education office focused on checking unauthorized increases in lesson fees, unregistered short-term high-priced special lectures, excessive collection of miscellaneous fees, and compliance with lesson hours, among other unlawful fee increases.

Of the 228 violations uncovered, 123 involved lesson fee-related violations, 32 involved instructor-related violations, 18 related to improper display or posting in advertisements, 17 involved unauthorized changes in location or facilities, 10 involved improper use of names, 2 involved false, exaggerated, or promotional advertisements for advanced learning, and 26 were classified as other violations (such as failure to maintain required ledgers or incomplete records).

The main types of lesson fee-related violations included failure to register changes in lesson fees (52 cases), violations related to the display or posting of lesson fees and related information (42 cases), excessive collection of lesson fees (10 cases), and the collection of costs other than lesson fees (19 cases).

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education imposed administrative measures for the detected violations, including suspension of lessons in 3 cases, penalty points and correction orders in 172 cases, administrative guidance in 19 cases, and fines in 31 cases. The total amount of fines imposed was 33 million won.

Going forward, the education office plans to raise public awareness about illegal forms of private education outside of lesson fees by conducting a citywide campaign using smart boards in approximately 27,000 apartment elevators, reaching a total of 1.1 million households across Seoul.

Kim Cheonhong, Acting Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, stated, "We will continue to conduct thorough and intensive inspections and take strict administrative action against unlawful practices related to lesson fees. We are committed to fostering a culture of voluntary compliance with the law among academies and tutoring centers, and to further stabilizing lesson fees and reducing the burden of private education costs."

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