84% of their children go to academies to be even more competitive

If you travel to South Korea and take a walk through Seoul either Daejeon A detail is likely to get attention: the posters of their Hagwonthe private academies to which children go to learn English and mathematics or achieve maximum qualification in he Suneungthe exam in which access to the best universities in the country are played. In 2020 there were more than 73,000 academies. The figure hides a crucial challenge for Korea, a nation immersed in a alarming demographic decline and in which to educate children has become a private luxury.

There are studies that already point to South Korea as the most expensive nation To raise a child. Interestingly (or not) it is also the country with the lower rate of birth.

A demographic contradiction. In the rankings on birth and raising South Korea stands out in two fields that do not fit well with each other. With one fertility rate of 0.72 children For a woman, the Asian Republic is in the tail in birth and faces a situation that the authorities already call “National Emergency”without hot cloths. Its poor birth is such a serious problem that affects its economy, society and even national defense.

Demographic ironies, South Korea is also one of the nations in which More expensive Go out to raise a child.

A little fortune. This was shown last year a study by the Yuwa Institute. According to the information collected by the South Korean newspaper Chosun Iboraising a rod until age 18 implies a cost equivalent to 7,79 times The GDP per capita, which in counting and sound money translates into about 365 million krw. Or 251,562 euros, to change. Secondly, it placed China, with a cost 6.9 times higher than GDP per capita, followed by Germany (3,6) and France (2,2).

To partly alleviate that situation and stop the loss of population suffering from the country, over the last 18 years South Korea has invested 280,000 million of dollars and deployed a range of direct aid, incentives and policies that seek to improve the quality of life of families. Seoul authorities even value delivering families a “Super baby check” of 70,000 euros.

Education, a luxury? In that bulky invoice education has a relevant weight. Again according to The data Published by the newspaper Chosun Iboin 2022 the South Koreans spent the whopping of almost 18,000 million euros in private centers for their offspring. The figure is equivalent to more than 361 euros per child. A month. The situation is such that a year ago The Korea Times assured That the families of South Korea dedicate more resources to the private and extracurricular classes of their children than to other fundamental expenses, such as food or housing.

Very expensive. To be more precise, he cited data from Statistics Korea that show that in homes with more relieved economies a monthly average of 1.14 million wones, $ 869, to private classes for children between 13 and 18 years are dedicated. The amount It is a noticeable pinch of monthly income and is practically equivalent to the sum of what was spent on food (636,000 wones) and accommodation (539,000). And it is not something exclusive to wealthy households. In the most humble spending on private classes exceeded what is dedicated to housing and food.

Record record. Despite the amount of resources dedicated to academies and extracurricular activities, South Korean households do not seem willing to cut their expenditure on private education. This is reflected data of the Ministry of Education and Statistics. Their calculations show that in 2022 the total expenditure on private education amounted to about 19.7 billion dollars, 10.8% more than the previous year, when an annual record had already been broken.

Far from slowing down, private education spending experienced another considerable rebound last year. After an interannual increase of 4.5%, the most pronounced in recent years, in 2023 stood at around 20,000 million dollars. And that despite the decrease in the number of primary, secondary and high school students caused by the least birth. The reason: the decision of the government of increase The admission quota in medical schools.

A keyword: Hagwon. The phenomenon of private education is not understood in South Korea without a fundamental concept, “Hagwon”which is how the “Intensive schools”academies and private classrooms to which students come to reinforce what they learn in schools, learn extra subjects or prepare for the most important exams, especially Suneungor CSAT, the demanding evidence that gives access to the country’s universities.

To the Hagwon Even children come in preschool age and from the hand of their teachers they learn English, mathematics, taekwondo, swimming or how to touch the piano. India magazine Frontline He dedicated a wide report Three years ago in which he explained that the concept already dates back to the end of the 19th century and in 2020 more than 73,000 private tutoring centers were distributed in South Korea, half of which also concentrated in the capital. Time Precise that only in Seoul the 24,000 establishments would be exceeded, the triple that convenience stores.

Two data for reflection. A good percentage can say more than a thousand words. And as regards private education and South Korea there are two that are eloquent. In 2017 the Korean Institute for Care and Early Childhood Education published A report which revealed that 35.5% of two -year -old children and 83.6% of those of five attended private academies. And under that concept they included both the Hagwons Conventional such as cultural centers, nurseries, childhood gardens or formations taught in their homes, in person or online.

The study is already some years, but it is usually calculated that about 80% of the students of South Korea attend Hagwons or “intensive schools”. The survey The Institute of Early Childhood Education showed that the children dedicate a considerable number of hours to their formations: those of two years participated in 2.6 sessions per week, with an average of 47.6 minutes per class; Those of five years received 5.2 sessions, each with a duration of about 50 minutes.

But … why? To understand what leads South Korean parents to enroll their children in academies to whom hundreds of dollars each month are well to remember Reflection who shared in 2023 with The Korea Times Kim, a woman from Seoul mother of a 13 -year -old teenager: “The tutoring expenses are the biggest burden of our family budget. I do everything possible to reduce the number of classes that my son attends, but it is difficult to decide which ones to leave. Each one is important to have good grades, and I do not want it to stay behind.”

In addition to school, the adolescent went to English classes, mathematics, writing and taekwondo. Perhaps it seems a lot, but Kim said that other neighbors did that “and more” and recognized his fear that in the hypercompetitive he would be his stem ended and saw his future compromised.

Looking to the future. “A good private education, in addition to ordinary school, aims to ensure that the child obtains good grades and a place in one of the best universities,” Share with DW Han Ye-Jung, a lawyer with a little daughter. “And that should mean a good job, so entering into a first crucial university, since it guarantees success in life.”

In Korea There are those He already warns of excess competition in the classrooms and believes that education spending is leaving hands; Although there is also no lack of voices that assume that, as the system is, students find it difficult to prepare the exams for free. “Let everyone go to Hagwons It makes me feel as if I lost something if I don’t do it ”, Recognize Yerim Kim, student.

Conciliation issue. There would be another key: conciliation. The academies and extracurricular activities offer the working fathers and mothers of South Korea an option to keep their children occupied. Frontline Explain For example, it is not strange to see parents waiting in their cars in Daechi-Dong for their children to leave classes, sometimes until ten o’clock at night, when they close.

Probably aware of that need, in February the government advertisement The expansion of extracurricular programs oriented to children in primary centers. The objective: that work until eight in the afternoon. Usually the first degree students in schools end their classes to one or two.

With controversy included. The role of private education and its high cost is also accompanied by a certain controversy. First, because it can assume An extra obstacle when encouraging birth in a nation immersed in such a icy demographic winter that already speaks of “national emergency.” Second, due to the overload it supposes to The children themselves and the domestic economieswhich can even derive in what has been baptized as “EDUPOBRES”.

And third, for what it means for the educational system itself and equal opportunities. “It’s hard to prepare only for exams when Hagwon They offer abundant study material that you could not get otherwise, “assumes Kim, a student who goes to one of these centers. The government has tried to regulate in the past with variable success the work of private academies, to which Some accuse to “take advantage of the anxieties” of parents so that their children achieve good training and quality jobs in the demanding Korea.

Images | Open Government Partnership (Flickr) 1 and 2

In Xataka | Japan has aged so much that a local diaper company will start marketing them only for adults

*An earlier version of this article was published in June 2024