South Korea unveils plans to curb soaring private education spending (updated)

Multicampus

26/06/2023 07:45

(Adds details of plan from ministry briefing)
    By Hyunsu Yim
       SEOUL, June 26 (Reuters) - South Korea's government
unveiled plans on Monday aimed at curbing the country's
burgeoning spending on private education, which has been blamed
for being a major factor behind the country's declining
fertility rate.
    The move comes as President Yoon Suk Yeol this month
criticised college entrance tests that incorporate questions not
in the curriculum at public schools, including some that have
been dubbed "killer questions" due to their complexity.
        "We will cut the vicious cycle of killer questions in
exams which leads to excessive competition among students and
parents in private education," education minister Lee Ju-ho told
a briefing.
  
    The ministry also vowed to crack down on private education
"cartels" by ramping up efforts to monitor what it termed false
and exaggerated advertising.
    South Koreans spent a record 26 trillion won ($19.97
billion) on private education last year, despite a declining
student population, a joint report by the education ministry and
the government statistics bureau showed.
    Nearly eight in 10 students take part in private education
such as cram schools, known as "hagwons", according to the
report.
    This heavy reliance on private education has helped result
in South Korea having the world's highest cost of raising a
child, according to a report last year, and the world's lowest
birth rate.
 ($1 = 1,302.0300 won)

 (Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Hyunsu Yim
Editing by Jack Kim, Ed Davies)
 ((Hyunsu.Yim@thomsonreuters.com;))