Go to contents

Seoul’s English kindergartens averagely charge 1.62 million per month

Seoul’s English kindergartens averagely charge 1.62 million per month

Posted January. 29, 2018 08:32,   

Updated January. 29, 2018 08:55

한국어

A survey has revealed that an average tuition fee for private English institutes for preschoolers in Seoul amounts to around 1.625 million won.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Sunday, there were a total of 160 private academies as of July last year, 117 of which were the so-called English kindergartens that only accept preschoolers while another 43 were institutes that teach elementary and middle school students as well as young children. Thirty four percent of a total of 474 English institutes for preschoolers was found to be located in Seoul. Gangdong and Songpa Districts had the largest number of these institutes with 42 (26.3 percent), followed by Gangseo and Yangcheon Districts with 25 institutes (15.6 percent), and Gangnam and Seocho Districts with 23 (14.4 percent).

An average lessen fee per month was 688,000 won, but parents should have paid additional fees for meals and shuttle bus services, which drove the total monthly cost of sending their children to the private institutes to 1.625 million won on average. An average lesson fee was the highest in Gangdong and Songpa Districts at 1 million won per month, and the lowest in Eunpyeong, Mapo and Seodaemun Districts at 289,000 won. The costliest institute was found to be located in Gangnam and Seocho Districts, which charges the lessen fee of 1.76 million won each month. The survey has proved that there are good grounds for some to criticize the government’s recent decision to ban after-school English classes, saying that the ban on classes with the fee of 30,000 won will lead to the preval‎ence of private institutes for which you should pay 1 million won. Meanwhile, Hwang Seong-soon, president of the Korea Association of Foreign Language Academies, said that the fees are greatly varied by region while only some institutes in certain regions are requiring high fees.

As it is expected that the demand for private English institutes for preschoolers will greatly jump according to the government’s ban on after-school English classes of the first-grade and second-grade students starting this semester, the Office of Education plans to provide guidelines and conduct an inspection to check whether the institutes are using proper titles and charging reasonable amounts for tuition fees.



Kyung-Im Woo woohaha@donga.com