The Ministry of Education said on Apr. 1 it will raise the share of third-grade elementary school students receiving 500,000 won per year in after-school program vouchers to 70% by the end of the year. For middle school students, it will run writing and essay programs, and for high school students, it will provide college admissions counseling services for free.
The Ministry of Education announced a policy plan aimed at reducing private education expenses. After aggregates of private education spending for elementary, middle, and high schools were tallied to have exceeded 27 trillion won last year, the Ministry of Education prepared measures to ease parents' burden of private education.
First, the Ministry of Education will expand eligibility for after-school program vouchers for elementary school students. The after-school program voucher is a voucher that can be used for expenses for programs such as coding and soccer after school ends, and it has been provided since this year to third-grade elementary school students. Currently, 57.2% of third graders receive the voucher, and the Ministry of Education will increase this share to 70% by year-end. Next year, eligibility will be expanded to fourth-grade elementary school students.
The Ministry of Education will also operate writing and essay programs linked to reading clubs at all middle schools by 2030. The "two teachers in one classroom" system, which assigns cooperative instructors to individually teach students who struggle to keep up with classes, will be expanded from 440 schools at the end of last year to 6,000 schools this year. Students with dyslexia or borderline intellectual disability will be identified early and supported with specialized programs through 188 Learning Comprehensive Clinic Centers nationwide.
High school students will be able to receive admissions counseling through the public college admissions information portal. The Ministry of Education will introduce conversational admissions information search functions to the portal within the year and set up specialized counseling functions for the comprehensive student record screening. Next year, it will provide customized university diagnosis services based on individual grades. In 2028, it will also support customized academic counseling designs linked to students' desired career paths using artificial intelligence (AI). The Central Support Group for Career and Academic Planning, composed of 450 current teachers, will be increased to 1,000 by the second half of this year.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education will conduct intensive inspections of irregularities and illegal acts related to private academy tuition. It will also amend the Private Academy Act to establish grounds for sanctions to restrict lectures by academy instructors who engaged in transactions with teachers over test items. It will introduce penalty surcharge provisions for illegal acts such as collecting excess tuition and operating without registration. The Ministry of Education is currently reviewing "within 50% of sales" as the level of the penalty surcharge. For failures to report temporary closure or shutdown, fines will be raised from up to 3 million won to up to 10 million won.