The Cause of Institutionlized Private Tutoring in Korea: Defective Public Schooling or a Universal Desire for Family Reproduction?

Abstract

In Korea, private tutoring is considered a social evil that damages the capacity of public schooling and undermines social justice. Although the government has implemented various policies to reduce private tutoring, ranging from improving the quality of education to providing “quasi-private tutoring” programs and regulating the shadow education market, total spending on private tutoring has continued to increase. This study examines a little noticed but important cause of institutionalized private tutoring in Korea. The study employed a socio-ecological perspective to analyze both education and socio-structural factors. An extensive review of the government's private tutoring reduction policies and related literature was conducted. Private tutoring functions as a means by which parents can help their children compete for admission to prestigious universities and pass on wealth and social status to their children. Participation in private tutoring has become a social norm that is taken for granted. The root causes of institutionalized private tutoring lie in both educational and socio-structural factors. The study suggests that government policies, when ignoring the long-established “grammar” of parents about children's education, may either end in failure or produce unintended consequences.