South Korea cracks down on private academy irregularities
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“Killer questions” for the South Korean language subject are reportedly sold at approximately 250,000 won.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
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SEOUL – The South Korean Education Ministry said on Thursday that it has teamed up with the police and the market watchdog, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, to identify irregularities in operations of private academies and institutions – known as hagwon – nationwide for the next two weeks.
The ministry has started receiving reports on hagwon that provide one-to-one classes, run false advertisements, promote excessive spending on private education and charge separately for textbooks.
The reports can be filed on the Education Ministry’s website until July 6.
Referring to private education as a “powerful cartel for self-interest” that has benefited only private academies, Vice-Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon stressed that now is the time to “end the vicious circle of upping pressure on parents to spend on private education and private academies profiteering from them and deteriorating public education”.
According to reports, several high-school teachers in Daechi-dong – the neighbourhood in Seoul’s Gangnam district known as the mecca of private education – sell above-level questions from “suneung” mock exams to hagwon.
More than half a million students sit the annual nine-hour test, known as “suneung”,
“Killer questions” for the Korean language subject are reportedly sold at approximately 250,000 won (S$259), while mathematics questions are priced at about 500,000 won.
“The unfair private education cartel is what the government must eradicate. It won’t be solved quickly, but the government is committed to solving this issue,” Mr Jang said on Thursday during a response council meeting to combat irregularities in the private education industry.
The ministry will roll out specific measures on Monday to reduce private education expenses.
The decision comes as the country saw a stark increase in private education spending, hitting a record-high 26 trillion won in 2022, with the highest spending on English and mathematics. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
