This undated file photo shows students in a classroom at a cram school in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The majority of children come home after 6 p.m. on weekdays, and close to a half of them enjoy less than two hours of free time, a recent survey showed.
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union conducted an online survey of 1,841 children in 4th to 6th grades, 88.1 percent of whom said they take cram school classes or have tutoring.
Roughly two-thirds said they attend more than two private education facilities.
Among the children living in cities, 10.1 percent did not take any private after-school classes, compared to 26.4 percent in rural areas.
As for the reason why they take such classes, 45.6 percent of children said their parents forced them to, while 45.1 percent wanted to learn more.
Among the respondents, 57.3 percent said they come home after 6 p.m., after finishing all schoolwork and private education for the day.
Another 16.5 percent of children said they return home after 7 p.m., while 16.4 percent of children said they come home after 8 p.m.
At 44.6 percent of children, close to half of the respondents said they have less than two hours of free time on weekdays, while 17.1 percent said they have less than one hour of free time.
More than half of the children surveyed said they do not attend any after-school programs.
As for the reason, 63.9 percent said they ‘needed to go to cram schools,’ while 23 percent said they couldn’t find anything they wanted to learn.
More than 90 percent of children said they spend free time in classrooms.
Asked where they go to play after school, 43.2 percent of children said that they don’t play.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
