Elderly women participate in a dance class in a senior citizens center in Seoul on June 7, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of South Korean adults who participated in lifelong education programs run by educational facilities such as schools, universities, for-profit private academies and lifelong education centers declined last year, primarily due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a survey conducted jointly by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Educational Development Institute of 9,905 adults and 4,493 lifelong education institutes, the lifelong education participation rate for adults stood at 30.7 percent, down 9.3 percentage points from a year ago.
Of the surveyed adults, 23 percent said that they could not participate in such programs despite the fact that they wanted to.
In response to a question asking why they didn’t participate in such programs, 29 percent cited the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This figure represents a sharp increase from 3.4 percent recorded in the previous year’s survey.
The participation rate for non-face-to-face education programs increased, while the rate for face-to-face education programs declined.
The number of individuals who participated in online lifelong learning programs declined by 7.1 percent year on year to 18.7 million, but accounted for 90.5 percent of the total.
The number of those who participated in offline programs plunged by 60 percent to 1.6 million.
The number of online lifelong education programs increased by 2 percent to 93,652, while the number of offline programs fell by 37 percent to 64,077.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
