A survey found that 47.6% of children under the age of 6 who are not enrolled in school are receiving private education. This suggests that one in two preschool children is receiving private education. The monthly average expense for each child receiving private education was estimated at 330,000 won. Among the various types of education, the so-called English kindergarten or English academy for preschoolers was the most expensive, with an average monthly expense of 1,545,000 won per child.
The Ministry of Education announced on the 13th the results of the '2024 Early Childhood Private Education Expenses Survey.'
This is the first time the government has investigated and disclosed the status of private education expenses for preschoolers. The survey targeted 13,241 parents of preschoolers under the age of 6 between July and September last year.
According to the survey results, the percentage of preschoolers receiving private education was found to be 47.6%. The participation rates were 24.6% for ages under 2, 50.3% for 3-year-olds, 68.9% for 4-year-olds, and 81.2% for 5-year-olds, indicating that as age increases, the rate of participation in private education also rises.
Preschoolers participate in private education for an average of 5.6 hours per week. Similar to the participation rates, the weekly participation times were reported as 1.8 hours for children under 2, 5.2 hours for 3-year-olds, 6.4 hours for 4-year-olds, and 7.8 hours for 5-year-olds, showing that older children also tend to spend more time in private education.
Based on this survey, the Ministry of Education stated that the total private education expenses for 1,721,000 preschoolers nationwide are estimated to be 815.4 billion won, with 467.1 billion won allocated to childcare facilities and 348.3 billion won to home education.
Home education refers to cases where children are not sent to childcare facilities or kindergartens. Among the households surveyed that engage in home education, 17% noted that their children attend English kindergartens, play academies, or arts academies. The average monthly expense for children attending English kindergartens is 1,545,000 won. Following that, the average expenses for play academies, arts academies, and sports academies are 1,167,000 won, 783,000 won, and 767,000 won, respectively. This is nearly five times higher than the average monthly expense (332,000 won) for preschoolers receiving private education.
The gap in private education expenses and participation rates based on income levels was also evident. Households with an average monthly income of over 8 million won spent 322,000 won each month on private education for their preschoolers. This is 6.7 times that of households earning less than 3 million won (48,000 won).
The participation rate in private education for households earning over 8 million won is 62.4%, while it is 29.5% for households earning less than 3 million won.
The Ministry of Education plans to conduct a main survey on private education expenses for preschoolers next year, utilizing the national approval statistics following an in-depth study of the current survey results.