hankyoreh

By Jeon Jeong-yoon, staff reporter

South Korea still lags far behind other OECD countries with its public education environment, with three times the average private cost burden and a less-than-average government contribution, statistics show.

The findings were among the results of an examination of Education at a Glance 2014, indicators released by the Education Ministry on Sept. 9 from 2012 data (2011 for financial accounting) for 34 OECD member countries and ten non-members.

The findings showed South Korea spending 7.6% of its GDP on public education, or 1.5 percentage points above the OECD average of 6.1%.

But the government contribution was just 4.9%, putting it 0.4 percentage points below the 5.3% average for the OECD. In contrast, the 2.8% private contribution was over three times the OECD average of 0.9% - the highest rate in the organization for a fourteenth straight year, and evidence of the country’s still-heavy reliance on private spending for public education.

South Korean schools also far exceeded the OECD average in terms of students per teacher and per class, offering more evidence of the poor study environment. Student-teacher ratios came out to 18.4 for elementary schools, 18.1 for middle schools, and 15.4 for high schools, compared to their respective OECD averages of 15.3, 13.5, and 13.8. Elementary schools had an average of 25.2 students per class, and middle schools 33.4 students; the OECD averages were 21.3 and 23.5, respectively. High school figures were not released.

Other figures showed South Korea still outpacing the rest of the world in its much-vaunted “education fever.” The 82% high school graduation rate for adults aged 25 to 64, and the 42% completion rate for universities and other forms of tertiary education, exceeded the respective OECD averages of 75% and 32%. The country has also consistently ranked first among member countries since 2007 with a 98% rate of high school graduation and a 66% rate of tertiary education completion among people aged 25 to 34.

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