hankyoreh

Feb. 18.

The Hankyoreh created this series to evaluate the first two years of the Lee presidency through Feb. 25, the two-year anniversary of his inauguration. Over the past two years, the South Korean people have witnessed the regression of democracy and deteriorating inter-Korean relations. Thus, the Hankyoreh will attempt to analyze the impact of the Lee administration’s policies and give a critique about what the administration should do in the remaining three years. This is part three of the series.

Last month, the family of “Lee Mi-suk” (not her real name), a 46-year-old mother living in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo District, lived on just over 1.3 million Won ($1,128 USD). For a family of five, including Lee’s husband, two daughters and son, this is an absurdly low amount of money to live on. It falls short even of the 1,615,263 Won that the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs newly set as the minimum cost of living for a family of five in 2010.

Lee’s husband makes around 4 million Won a month as a team director for a small business. Lee herself runs a small pizza shop, which brings in about 2 million Won a month in income. Where has the money gone?


Lee said, “I think we are spending about half of our income on education expenses.” She added, “It is even tougher during the school vacations because we are paying twice as much for special courses and whatnot. When the vacation time comes, we use up all the money we saved during ordinary times.”

The eldest daughter is a high school senior this year. In order to get her used to the format of the suneung, College Scholastic Ability Test, Lee spent 1.2 million Won last month sending her to a private academy that simulates actual test-taking conditions. Because the class fell during the vacation, another 400,000 Won went toward science studies, while one million Won went toward her ordinary math, English and Korean studies. In total, the family paid out 2.6 million Won for her private education. “It is especially difficult when they are high school seniors. Looking at other people I know, it seems like 1.5 to 2 million Won is standard.”

Their son is beginning his second year of middle school and preparing to attend a science high school, so another 1.18 million Won went toward his math and science studies. The youngest child is not interested in studies yet, so she requires little outlay. Still, education expenses for the three of them together cost 4.63 million Won, nearly 80 percent of the family’s income last month.

Lee said, “Her high school grades are not high enough, so she has to do well on the suneung and get into university through her scores on that. We have no choice but to send her to an academy, even if it costs 1.2 million Won. I think her grades will go up if we send her there just a bit longer. All the mothers who have their children do private education feel this way.”

Last year, the family spent between 2.3 million to 2.85 million Won a month on private education. In June 2009, the government presented measures for cutting private education outlays by improving the competitiveness of public education, but this had little effect on Lee Mi-suk’s household expenditures. She said, “After-school study? It’s great as long as it is run well and tailored to the child’s needs. It is affordable and close to home. But my daughter says it isn’t right for her. It is really funny to see those schools hanging up banners in the neighborhood saying ‘a school without private education.’”

She added, “Everyone knows the mothers of those students are having their children do private education.” 
Lee did not stop her son’s private academy studies in high school physics and chemistry last July when it was announced that screening by admissions officers was being introduced for the science high school entrance exam. She reasoned that even if he could not go to a science high school, the head start in studying high school science would help her son later on when he took the suneung.

Instead, she is scared about the possible emergence of a new factor in the family’s private education expenditures: the university admissions officer system. She said, “Even if we are only thinking about admission through suneung scores, the top universities choose more than half of all their students through the admissions officer system. If it seems like they provide reliable information, we may have to do admissions officer consulting, whatever the expense.”

Lee, who has had to severely tighten her belt because of education costs, refers to herself as “lower middle class.” She does not have any of the brand-name handbags common among other women, and her wedding jewels are the only items she has of the kind of jewelry middle-aged women typically have their eye on. She said, “I bought a fair amount of expensive clothing before I got married, but I don’t remember buying any clothes at the department store while the children were growing up. I buy them at the markets in Dongdaemun or Namdaemun, or at the neighborhood market.”

Her biggest worry lately is that there seems to be no end in sight to her children’s education and care. She said, “It does not end when they go to college, of course. Even if they do not go to school abroad, they have to at least do language study abroad if they want to get a job, and they say graduate school is also standard now. It is a miracle we have made it through up until now, but I am really not sure how long we will be able to keep it up.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]