Demand for Education and Developmental State: Private Tutoring in South Korea

Abstract

As South Korea's economy grows, her education sector has expanded dramatically as well. In 2000, although the government spent 3.5% of GDP on formal primary and secondary schooling (comparable to other OECD countries), households spent about the same amount on private tutoring. We argue that the prevalent private tutoring is a market response to the education policy of the developmental state paradigm. In order to achieve rapid economic growth, the government pushed hard for universal primary schooling and then equalization of secondary schools. The well-established pecking order in the universities and the under-provision of public education in a highly regulated educational environment has resulted in an enormous increase in private tutoring despite government's measures to reduce it.