Lee Administration Needs to Limit Private Academy Lesson Times and Designate Kindergartens as Compulsory Education Institutions

Suggestions Raised:
"Designate Daycare Centers and Kindergartens Instead of 'Young English Academies'"
"Reduce Private Academy Lesson Times by One Hour Each"

In order to reduce the burden of private education expenses, which amount to 30 trillion won per year, there have been calls to limit private academy lesson times by one hour each and to designate kindergartens and daycare centers as compulsory education institutions to prevent excessive early English education for young children.

Children who have finished classes at an English kindergarten in the Hagwon district of Mokdong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, are boarding the kindergarten bus. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

According to Statistics Korea on June 19, private education spending last year reached 29.2 trillion won, an increase of 2.1 trillion won (7.7%) compared to the previous year. The average monthly private education spending per student was 592,000 won (for students participating in private education), but the actual amount spent by parents is much higher.

Lee Deoknan, head of the Education and Culture Team at the National Assembly Research Service, said at the "2025 Education Transformation Forum: Citizen Discussion for Private Education Reduction Project" held on June 18 by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to discuss ways to reduce private education costs and strengthen public education, "The government's announced figure of '590,000 won for private education' lacks credibility." She added, "There needs to be an index that parents can actually relate to, by multiplying it with a tangible alpha value." Currently, private education statistics do not include after-school program costs, language training expenses, or EBS textbook fees. However, since these are also out-of-pocket expenses for supplementary education, she argued that they should be included in the private education cost statistics.

She also pointed out that although every administration has announced measures to reduce private education costs, these measures have rarely been properly implemented. As a short-term measure that the current administration should pursue, she mentioned the "limitation of private academy lesson times."

Lee said, "Education policy should be approached from a long-term perspective, but if only long-term measures are prepared, the strong momentum that can be expected at the beginning of an administration may be lost, so short-term measures are also necessary." She added, "A representative example is reducing private academy lesson times by one hour each."

She stated, "We need measures that either prevent everyone from participating in private education or make them participate less." She suggested that it is worth considering legislation to reduce private academy lesson times for each class in elementary, middle, and high schools. She believed that potential job losses due to regulation of the private education market could be offset by expanding after-school programs.

There was also an opinion that, in order to prevent issues such as the "age 4 test" and "age 7 test," it is necessary to designate daycare centers and kindergartens as "compulsory early childhood education institutions."

Currently, daycare centers and kindergartens are not compulsory education institutions, which is why parents are seeking so-called "English kindergartens"?English academies for young children?for early English education.

Woosuk Hoon, a professor at Sungkonghoe University, said, "Currently, compulsory education is centered on elementary school, but there is a need to legally establish compulsory education institutions starting from early childhood." He added, "If the designation of compulsory early childhood education institutions is properly implemented, it will resolve a significant part of the issues such as level tests for four-year-olds."

There were also suggestions to introduce a "private academy attendance record system" and to provide incentives to students who do not attend private academies.

Professor Woo said, "Ultimately, we need education system reforms that encourage students to study according to the government system without private education." He also said, "It is worth considering the introduction of a system that manages total private education hours and costs, centered on registered private academies."