South Korea's private tutoring spending falls for first time in five years
Private education spending for Korea’s elementary to high school students totaled 27.5 trillion won in 2025, a 5.7% drop from the previous year and the first decline in five years since 2020, according to the Ministry of Education and the National Data Center. Officials cited rising prices and growing participation in public education as factors cooling demand for private tutoring.
The overall participation rate in private tutoring fell from 80.0% in 2024 to 75.7% in 2025, a decline seen across all income groups. In particular, households with monthly incomes under 3 million won saw participation drop from 58.1% to 52.8%, while high-income households earning 8 million won or more per month fell from 87.6% to 84.9%.
The decrease in private tutoring spending coincides with an uptick in public education participation, especially among elementary students. Participation in after-school programs and extended day care (늘봄학교 and after-school activities) rose to 52.2%, a 1.3 percentage-point increase from the prior year. A Ministry official said that efforts to expand elementary care, after-school programs, and EBS instructors likely helped ease private-education costs.
Despite the overall decline, costs for students who do participate in tutoring remain high. The average monthly private-education expense per student across all students fell to 458,000 won, but for those who did participate, the figure rose to 604,000 won—a 2.0% increase. The share of participating students spending more than 1,000,000 won per month edged up to 11.6%.
Regional disparities are pronounced. Seoul residents spent an average of 663,000 won per month on private education, followed by Gyeonggi at 499,000 won and Busan at 456,000 won. By contrast, Gyeongbuk and Jeollanam-do posted lower figures of 329,000 won and 309,000 won, respectively, underscoring uneven access to private tutoring across the country.
The report also notes a long-term trend: since 2016, the number of students has fallen by about 900,000, yet total private-education spending rose from about 18.1 trillion won to 27.5 trillion won—an increase of more than 50%. Analysts say the structure of admissions policies as exams evolve continues to shape private spending patterns.
Experts cited in the article point to the ongoing policy transition around admissions and public education as a key factor in costs. Jongno Hagwon chief Im Seong-ho warned that shifting entrance policies create uncertainty, suggesting that clearer exam frameworks could cause private-education costs to rise again once policies stabilize.
Why this matters beyond Korea: for the United States, the Korean case illustrates how inflation, currency movements, and deliberate public-education investments intersect with parental spending on tutoring and after-school services. It highlights the potential demand for edtech and after-school platforms as employers and policymakers weigh public investment versus private instruction. The regional gaps also matter for global education providers seeking to serve high- and low-access markets, while Korea’s approach to expanding public programs could inform international policy debates on how to balance quality, equity, and cost in education systems that rely heavily on private tutoring.