Korean Private Tutoring Spending Slides as Public Options Expand

Last year, Korea’s private tutoring bill for elementary through high school fell for the first time in five years, down 5.7% to 27.5 trillion won. The Ministry of Education and the National Data Agency reported that the overall tutoring participation rate dipped to 75.7%, and the average weekly tutoring time declined by 0.4 hours to 7.1 hours per student.

By level, elementary school tutoring saw the largest drop, slipping 7.9% to 12.2 trillion won. Middle school tutoring fell 3.2%, and high school tutoring decreased 4.3%, all contributing to the overall downward trend in after-school private education.

Officials attributed the decline to multiple factors, noting that it aligns with a shrinking student population and the broader rollout of policy measures such as expanded after-school care, increased after-school programs, and more EBS course offerings. They suggested the combined effect of these policies is helping ease reliance on private after-school instruction.

The report also highlighted a widening income-based gap. In households with monthly income under 3 million won, per-capita tutoring spending dropped 6.6% to 192,000 won, while households earning 8 million won or more saw a smaller 2.1% decline to 662,000 won. The participation-rate drop was 5.3 percentage points for the low-income group, compared with 2.6 points for the high-income group, signaling persistent inequality in access to educational opportunities.

Regionally, Busan’s per-student monthly tutoring spend stood at 456,000 won, close to the national average of 458,000 won. Busan elementary tutoring spending was 453,000 won, placing the city behind Seoul (601,000 won) and Gyeonggi Province (470,000 won) and making Busan the third-highest nationwide.

With private tutoring spending retreating, more students turned to public education resources. The share purchasing EBS study materials rose to 18.0% from the previous year, while 32.6% of high-school students used EBS materials, indicating a shift toward government-supported or publicly provided learning aids.

Why this matters beyond Korea: Private tutoring is a major component of households’ education spending and a driver of human capital formation in advanced economies. For the United States, the findings illustrate how macro pressures such as inflation and household budgets influence access to supplementary education, with potential implications for edtech markets, after-school programs, and equity in learning opportunities. The Korean example also highlights how policy measures that bolster public education alternatives can shift demand away from private tutoring, a dynamic relevant to U.S. discussions on public investment in after-school and K-12 support.