74 percent of elementary students receive private English education

Seven out of 10 elementary school first or second graders currently recieve private English education. Currently, most Korean elementary school students start learning English at school during the third grade and up.

Professor Park Yak-u at Gyeongin National University of Education along with his research team conducted a survey regarding an education ministry plan to expand early English education at Korean elementary schools.

Prof. Park’s team last winter surveyed 2,990 parents of first and second graders nationwide; 73.7 percent answered that their children received or are receiving private English education. Asked about the cost of English tutoring, 35.7 percent replied they spend 60,000-100,000 won ($60-100) a month and 30.3 percent 110,000-210,000 won. The remaining 33.9 percent spend 10,000-50,000 won a month.

Regarding an earlier start of English instruction in elementary schools, 92.9 percent of parents of first and second graders, along with elementary school teachers, educational experts and the general public, answered that private education would increase in that case. A mere 7.1 percent held the opposite opinion. This figure supports the opinion of educational organizations, who say that if public schools begin English instruction in the first grade, instead of decreasing the number of students enrolled in private English instruction, the private instruction market would become even more overheated. The educational organizations are thus opposed to the government’s proposal.

According to the survey, 73.6 percent of first and second graders of elementary schools learned or are learning English privately and 38 percent out of them received private English education in kindergarten. Out of 117 parents of kindergarten children, 87.2 percent answered that their children were learning English. Currently, teaching English in kindergarten is illegal.

“These figures show that the ban on English education in kindergarten is meaningless,” the research team remarked.

Asked about the reasons of receiving private education, 56.8 percent of elementary parents answered, “Because English is important,” and 20.7 percent replied, “Because we are worried [about the quality of instruction in public school].” According to the survey, 10.5 percent called public school English instruction “below the students’ level” and 7.7 percent said, “the time allotted for learning English is not enough.”

The Ministry of Education, under a long-term plan to start public English education earlier, announced on May 1 that, as a test, it will provide English education for first and second graders of 16 elementary schools from the latter half of this year.