Children are studying English language in this file photo. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — A majority of English cram schools for kids turned out to charge monthly tuition of more than 1 million won (US$716), a data showed Wednesday.
The number of English-language private education facilities for kids stood at 745 as of the end of June, according to the data that independent lawmaker Min Hyung-bae received from the Ministry of Education.
Among them, 407 cram schools charged monthly tuition ranging from 1-2 million won, followed by 34 with monthly tuition of 2-3 million won and two with monthly tuition of more than 3 million won.
In other words, 443 or 59 percent of the private education facilities for kids charge monthly tuition of more than 1 million won.
The cram school with the highest monthly tuition is located in Busan.
The facilities’ monthly tuition is estimated at 3.13 million won. Its annual tuition is five times higher than the average annual tuition at private universities (7.52 million won) as of April 2022.
Among the cram schools, 626 or 84 percent have longer lesson hours than the school hours of first and second-grade elementary school students, who study for three hours a day on average at school.
The English-language private education facilities for kids are operated as kindergartens, but are classified as cram schools, or “hagwon” in Korean, since they are registered as private schools.
Since it’s difficult to control their educational curriculum and tuition, they remain in a management blind spot.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
