Daegu records Korea's largest drop in private tutoring amid education reforms
The Daegu Metropolitan City education office said that private tutoring participation among elementary, middle, and high school students in the Daegu area fell sharply, the largest decline of any region in Korea. The figure comes from the 2025 private tutoring expenditure survey released by Korea’s Ministry of Education and the National Data Agency.
According to the survey, the Daegu area saw a 6.5 percentage point drop in students taking private tutoring. In addition, the average monthly private tutoring expenditure per student declined by 31,000 won. The results represent the most pronounced year-over-year decrease since the survey began reporting figures in 2021.
That dip is described as the biggest decrease among all cities and provinces nationwide. The nationwide data show a broad shift, but Daegu recorded the most substantial reduction in both participation rates and per-student spending.
Daegu’s education office interpreted the results as evidence that the city’s public-education-centered anti-tutoring policies are producing measurable changes. School chief Kang Eun-hee said the policies include IB program-based classes and assessment reforms, the use of AI- and textbook-based digital teaching materials, and the expansion of after-school programs such as 늘봄 and other after-hours initiatives. She added that Daegu would continue pursuing tutoring-reduction measures aligned with local conditions.
Why this matters beyond Korea: South Korea has historically high private tutoring costs, which influence family budgets, consumer spending, and the country’s education technology market. A sustained move toward reducing reliance on private tutoring could rebalance demand for edtech products and public-school innovation, with potential ripple effects on global education platforms and suppliers that serve Korean schools and families. For U.S. readers, the development highlights ongoing international attention to how public education reforms, AI-enabled teaching materials, and after-school programs interact with private tutoring markets.
Context for non-Korean readers: Daegu is Korea’s fourth-largest city, located in the southeastern part of the country, with a strong manufacturing base and a dense urban population. The 2025 survey is part of Korea’s ongoing effort to measure how public education policies affect private tutoring, or hagwon, participation, a long-standing feature of the country’s education system.