Global Courant
SEOUL — South Korea’s education ministry said Thursday it has teamed up with police and its market watchdog, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, to crack down on irregularities in the activities of private academies and institutions — known as hagwon — across the country over the next two weeks. to identify.
The ministry has begun receiving reports of hagwon teaching one-on-one classes, posting false advertisements, promoting excessive spending on private education and charging separate fees for textbooks.
The reports can be submitted until July 6 on the website of the Ministry of Education.
Referring to private education as a “powerful cartel for self-interest” that only private academies have benefited from, Deputy Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon stressed that now is the time to “end the vicious circle of increasing pressure on parents to spend on private education”. education and private academies that benefit and degrade public education.”
According to reports, several high school teachers in Daechi-dong — the neighborhood in Seoul’s Gangnam district known as the mecca of private education — are selling questions above the level of “suneung” mock exams to hagwon.
More than half a million students take the annual nine-hour test known as “suneung,” which plays a vital role in determining a student’s college, career, and even marriage prospects.
“Killer questions” for the Korean language subject are said to sell for about 250,000 won (S$259), while math questions are priced at about 500,000 won.
“The unfair private education cartel is what the government must eradicate. It won’t be solved anytime soon, but the government is committed to solving this problem,” Jang said at a council meeting on Thursday to combat irregularities in the private education sector.
The ministry is rolling out specific measures on Monday to reduce spending on private education.
The decision comes as the country saw a surge in private education spending, reaching a record high of 26 trillion won by 2022, with the highest spending on English and math. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
