[Inside Chodong] The Truth Behind Private Education Costs Rising Twice as Fast as Inflation

Tuition Fee Hikes at Private Academies on the Rise
Improving the Quality of Public Education Is Essential

"It seems like tuition fee hikes are becoming a trend."

Last year, the total private education expenses reached 26 trillion won, marking an all-time high and sparking ongoing complaints from parents. The private education cost increase rate last year was 10.8% compared to the previous year, double the consumer price inflation rate of 5.1%. In fact, the record-breaking rise in private education expenses was already anticipated. A working mom I recently met expressed her frustration that the academy which raised tuition just a few months ago has increased fees again with the start of the new semester. Raising two children, she recalled the typical pattern of tuition hikes. From her experience last year when her first child entered elementary school, it all started with international oil prices. Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, fuel prices soared, and academies operating shuttle buses announced increases in vehicle fees. In the first half of last year, international oil prices hit record highs, making it impossible to operate shuttle services without raising fees. But this was only the beginning. The academy, which had charged the same vehicle fee to all shuttle users, eventually announced a differentiated fee system based on the number of weekly rides and notified another increase this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic three years ago ignited tuition fee hikes. As the public education system failed to function properly, the shift toward private education accelerated. Academies, unable to hold face-to-face classes due to COVID, quickly transitioned to online systems and added ‘considerable’ online tuition fees. During this process, exaggerated phrases like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and metaverse-based new learning methods were employed. Academies used every trick to itemize fees?offline classes, online classes, textbook fees, and other costs?without hesitation to justify fee hikes. The education authorities’ decision to raise the long-frozen ‘tuition adjustment standards’ also fueled tuition increases. Despite parents’ financial strain from soaring private education costs driven by rapid inflation and rising labor costs, the government remains silent.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Choo Kyung-ho, recently expressed confidence that the inflation rate would slow down, noting that the March inflation rate dropped to the low to mid-4% range and that a 3% inflation rate in the second quarter is possible. However, parents struggling with sharply rising prices overall and rapidly increasing tuition fees do not feel any relief from the slowing inflation trend. According to a report released earlier this month by the Bank of Korea titled ‘Changes in Inflation Conditions and Major Risk Checks,’ changes in volatile food and energy prices (non-core inflation) have affected core inflation with a time lag. Notably, the impact on personal service prices such as education and dining out is greatest about three months later. Considering Korea’s high dependence on private education, where education expenses are practically fixed costs and difficult to reduce, household burdens inevitably increase significantly.

While overall inflation has indeed driven up education costs, the fundamental cause of the ‘private education cost bomb’ lies in the ‘quality of public education.’ The phenomenon of parents turning to private education due to disappointment in public education quality is not new. Parents experience their first ‘mental breakdown’ when their children enter elementary school, which ends earlier than kindergarten. Although elementary school dismissal times are earlier than kindergarten with the rationale that “children should grow up playing,” in reality, very few children actually play. The government is expanding after-school care classrooms, but disappointed by the quality of care, parents turn back to academies. A dual-income couple lamented, “There is no suitable place to leave our elementary school child until we finish work, so we rely on academies,” adding, “Despite repeated tuition hikes, we have no choice but to send them, crying and gritting our teeth.” The fact that total private education expenses and participation rates for elementary students last year were overwhelmingly higher than those for middle and high school students is a sad reflection of our education system. The absolute private education expenses of high-income families are higher than those of low-income families, deepening the polarization in private education costs.

As private education expenses broke records for two consecutive years, the Ministry of Education has hurriedly decided to prepare related measures for the first time in nine years. These measures must include fundamental considerations to improve the ‘quality of public education,’ which is already long overdue. Rather than a temporary fix to appease parents’ complaints, we hope for a sincere plan that can rekindle the flame of educational reform, one of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s three major reforms.