The purpose of this study is to compare analytically findings of various studies and counter-measures that have been conducted so far in order to understand how things are going with private tutoring in Korea from a comprehensive viewpoint and provide...
The purpose of this study is to compare analytically findings of various studies and counter-measures that have been conducted so far in order to understand how things are going with private tutoring in Korea from a comprehensive viewpoint and provide useful directions for preparing realistic alternative policies through comparing and analyzing a variety of actions taken by the communities involved in the issue of private tutoring cost. To this end, re-analysis of existing data on private tutoring cost, actions taken to tackle the issue of private tutoring cost by interested parties, review of newspaper articles, and analysis of previous studies were implemented. Following findings were obtained mainly as a result.
1. Overview of private tutoring in Korea
According to a report released by the Korean Educational Development Institute in 2003, Koreans were found to spend a total of 13,600 billion won in private tutoring, which means every student pours out about 240 thousand won in private tutoring monthly. In Korea, the amount of the money spent in private tutoring grows to increase continuously. Compared to 2001, the amount increased 1 trillion won or so every year, and students who take private tutoring after school rose from 58.2% in 2000 to 72.6% in 2003. Furthermore, every student resorts to private tutoring, regardless of academic performance, school, income, and region.
2. What made private tutoring increase and how to tackle the issue
Clearly, a strong desire to attain higher level of education has driven the increase of private tutoring costs. Such trend to get higher levels of education has led to fierce competition in the university entrance exam in Korea among schools from high and middle school even to primary school in Korea, which has resulted in extended the preparatory period of college entrance exam and the excessive fever of private tutoring. Besides, parents are so enthusiastic for education of their children that they are willing to spend much money on private tutoring. As people whether men or women believe that they have to enter a university to choose a better spouse, the pursuit for higher education, excessive competition for university entrance exams, and ever-growing demands for private tutoring have been resulted. Unsatisfactory regular school education may be another reason. In Korea, school education is suffering from poor educational environments and degrading quality of education, which in turn schools have failed to meet growing demands of parents and caused private tutoring market increase. Finally, the national university entrance exam in Korea, designed to measure higher-dimension ability of thinking, functions to only drive the fever of private tutoring as opposed to its original purposes.
Problems of private tutoring include the collapse of public education by excessive dependence on private tutoring, deterioration of student’s self-driven learning ability due to lack of creativity that weakens the educational competitiveness, disability of student’s normal growth, inequality of educational opportunity causing difficulties in social integration, and excessive financial burden imposed on household economy.
Efforts to tackle problems with private tutoring are divided in terms of educational, political, and economic communities. Educational circle has put an emphasis on the improvement of public education environments by extensive investment in public education and change of education consumer’s attitude, the economic community demanded privatization of public education as an alternative part of economic recovery polices, pointing out financial losses as a result of excessive cost of private tutoring, and finally politicians have contributed to making the issue of private tutoring cost appear on political agenda.
Improved quality of public education and efforts in changed attitudes of parents are critical to reduce private tutoring cost as suggested by the author. Problems of private tutoring ruinous to the state are now open to the efforts of both the government and individual parents based on careful considerations. For the purpose of educational advance, private tutoring should serve to complement curriculum at school and contribute to normalization of school education, rather than take the role of school education.