Increase Every Year Except 2020 During COVID-19 Pandemic
Parents' Social Awareness Also Affects Private Education Expenses
Households with kindergarten-aged children have increased their private education expenses by about 38% over the past five years. Additionally, an analysis suggests that parents' social perceptions and attitudes influence the scale of private education spending.
On the 17th, Kim Hye-ja, a research fellow at the Korea Educational Development Institute, revealed this through a report titled "Analysis of the Relationship Between Social Perception and Education Expenditure," which analyzed private education expenses by school level from 2018 to 2022 using fiscal panel survey data from the Korea Institute of Public Finance.
Households with kindergarten-aged children have increased their private education expenses by approximately 38% over the past five years. The photo is unrelated to the article content. [Image source=Getty Images]
According to the report, except for the year 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, private education expenses increased across kindergarten, elementary, and middle schools from 2018 to 2022.
Looking at the average monthly private education expenses per child by school stage, kindergarten was 224,000 KRW, elementary school 420,000 KRW, middle school 545,000 KRW, and high school 684,000 KRW.
The expenditure growth rates for elementary and middle schools were 18.0% and 9.4%, respectively. While high school private education expenses decreased by 1.6% compared to 2018, kindergarten expenses rose most prominently by 38.3% (62,000 KRW) from 162,000 KRW in 2018.
By income quintile, last year, households in the lowest 20% income bracket (1st quintile) spent 160,000 KRW on kindergarten private education. For elementary school, it was 250,000 KRW; middle school, 360,000 KRW; and high school, 548,000 KRW. Private education expenses for 1st quintile households increased across all school levels compared to 2018, with the largest increase of 55.7% seen in high school expenses.
In contrast, households in the highest 20% income bracket (5th quintile) maintained similar levels of private education spending across all school levels except kindergarten, where high school expenses slightly decreased. The 5th quintile households spent 301,000 KRW on kindergarten, 589,000 KRW on elementary school, 751,000 KRW on middle school, and 951,000 KRW on high school private education.
Kim's analysis of the impact of parents' social perceptions and attitudes on private education expenses found that the more negative parents' perceptions of income inequality, the more likely they are to increase their children's private education spending.
Furthermore, the analysis indicated a tendency for private education expenses to rise when trust in government policies, politicians, public officials, and journalists is low.
Kim suggested that such parental social perceptions and attitudes should be considered key factors when formulating private education policies.
She added, "Monitoring systems focused solely on the scale of private education expenses or per-student private education costs are insufficient to explain the multidimensional aspects of private education," emphasizing, "A comprehensive monitoring system that can analyze social and environmental changes, as well as perceptions and attitudes toward society, must be established."
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