A Cohort Comparison Study of Private Education Costs and Time among South Korean High School Students: Focusing on the Effect of School Closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study analyzed changes in private education costs and time of high school students in the 2013 cohort, who experienced a school closure event, with those of the 2005 cohort using data from the 5th (2009) and 6th (2010) waves of the Korea Educational Longitudinal Study (KELS) and the 7th (2019) and 8th (2020) waves of the KELS 2013 cohort. Considering that the private education pattern may differ depending on students' educational conditions, additional analysis was conducted on discriminatory effects based on household income and regional size. The analysis revealed that the school closure event had a positive effect on both private education expenditure and time. Specifically, it increased the average monthly private education expenditure of students in general high schools by approximately KRW 88,000 and the average weekly private education time by about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Furthermore, this effect was consistent across all subgroups classified by income level and regional size. Based on the results, policy recommendations were made to improve existing policies to reduce private education expenses and alleviate the burden on vulnerable groups, as well as to provide practical support to supplement learning deficits.