The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - Stratospheric Cost of English-Language Kindergartens

Stratospheric Cost of English-Language Kindergartens

The monthly tuition fee for English-language kindergartens is an average of W720,000, triple the cost of ordinary Korean-speaking preschools (US$1=W1,174).

Kindergartens where native English speakers teach the language to preschoolers are not officially authorized educational institutions under current law and are categorized as language institutes. English kindergartens began emerging four or five years ago in the affluent Gangnam area in southern Seoul.

According to a report submitted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to Grand National Party lawmaker Suh Sang-kee for a parliamentary audit, average monthly tuition is the highest in Seoul at W980,000. It is W650,000 in South Chungcheong Province, W600,000 in Busan and W560,000 in Gyeonggi Province.

There are 181 English kindergartens nationwide. Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province are home to 131 or 72 percent. Those in Seoul's Gangnam District are the most expensive, costing W1.24 million a month. Seocho District is second with W1.18 million, followed by Yongsan with W1.05 million, Jongro with W950,000, Daejeon’s Yuseong District with W890,000 and Euijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province with W880,000.

But Seocho District is home to the nation's single most expensive English kindergarten, which costs W1.64 million a month. Suh said tuition fees at English kindergartens are more than 13 times higher than those of public Korean-speaking kindergartens, proving the widening gap between haves and have-nots for the education of preschoolers.

englishnews@chosun.com / Oct. 06, 2009 10:06 KST

via english.chosun.com