Private education fever in Korea

Most of Korean parents are obsessed with private education. The obsession is fueled by parents’ strong desire that their children must not be left behind. Private tutoring and education are rampant in many subjects ranging from regular subjects of the school curriculum and art, music and sports education to how to do jump rope or how to play jackstones. As the Personality Education Promotion Act was effectuated on Jul. 22, personality and manner education have emerged as a ‘hot item’ in the private education market. Numerous countermeasures to curb private education have been of no use. Annually, parents in Korea spend 33 trillion won (approx. USD 28.34 billion) in the private education market, which is around 8.8% of this year’s budget of the Korean government. Entering a university is not an end of the private education. According to statistics, 4 in 10 job applicants fresh out of university have received private education to land a job. And these young job applicants have spent 300,000 won (approx. USD 257) in average per month for language and computer tutoring and preparation for a job interview.

These days, private education in demand is tutoring to help young guys to join a branch of the military service that they want at the time that they want. As the job crunch in Korea has become serious, 10 private academies have programs specialized in preparation for Reserve Officers` Training Corps (ROTC) and popular branches of the military service such as interpretation officer and information security officer, which are regarded as advantageous to get a job after the military service. To become an interpretation officer, a conscript needs to pass through a competition of 3.4 to 1 at a selection examination in August. Situation does not differ with ROTC. Last year’s competition rate was 2.8 to 1 for Navy, 2.7 to 1 for Air Force, and 6.4 to 1 for female ROTC. At the selection test for field army engineers of the 50th Division in March, the competition rate was a whopping 188.7 to 1, the highest competition rate for a branch of the military service.

Surging competition rate may be attributed to the larger number of men born between 1991 and 1995. Fetal sex identification using sonogram was popular at that time, resulting in 117 boys to 100 girls in 1990 and 112 boys to 100 girls in 1991. As these boys born through fetal sex identification grew to reach the age for military service, the number of conscripts judged fit for military service is already reaching the saturation point and the number of applicants for military specialist, who can choose when to enter the army, has increased.

Due to growing complaints on the time to enter the military, the Korean military authorities plan to enlist additional 9,300 conscripts this year. The military authorities also have lowered the rate to judge a conscript fit for the military service from 90% to 85%. Still, the fierce competition to enter the military and private education fever seem to last for a while. Men born between 1991 and 1995, who may have difficulties to find brides as they outnumbered girls in the same age, may need private tutoring on how to find a bride. The endless craze for private education in Korea leaves bitter taste when seeing the reality where a man needs private education to join the military.