A third-year student prepares for an exam at Seoul Girls' High School in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on June 4, when the College Scholastic Ability Test mock exam for the 2027 academic year was held. [Yonhap]
A third-year student prepares for an exam at Seoul Girls' High School in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on June 4, when the College Scholastic Ability Test mock exam for the 2027 academic year was held. [Yonhap]

Private tutoring participation rates and monthly spending on English instruction have increased since Korea switched to absolute grading for the English section of the College Scholastic Ability Test, a new study has found.

Kwak Na-ram, a research professor at Soongsil University, and colleagues published the findings in a paper titled "Analysis of the Effects of the Introduction of Absolute Grading for CSAT English on Private Education Demand" in the journal of the Korean Educational Sociology Association.

Analyzing private tutoring expenditure data from the Ministry of Education and Statistics Korea, the researchers found that real spending on English tutoring fell temporarily in 2015 and 2016 — immediately after the government announced the shift to absolute grading.

Once the system took effect in 2017 for the 2018 CSAT, however, spending reversed course and began rising, with the pace of increase widening over time. The researchers said the upward trend in English tutoring costs was more pronounced than for other core subjects such as Korean language and mathematics.

The study covered about 3.06 million students — roughly 930,000 elementary school pupils, about 870,000 middle school students and about 1.26 million general high school students.

To strip out the effect of inflation, the researchers converted tutoring costs into real terms using the consumer price index. They then applied interrupted time-series analysis to compare changes before and after the policy took effect, and comparative interrupted time-series analysis using Korean language and mathematics as control subjects.

Average monthly English tutoring spending among general high school students edged up from 90,000 won ($58) in 2016 to 91,000 won in 2017, a gain of just 1,000 won. In 2018, the first year under the absolute grading system, it rose to 102,000 won, an increase of more than 10,000 won. Spending continued to climb, reaching 157,000 won by 2024.

The share of general high school students receiving private English tutoring also slowed from 35.4 percent in 2016 to 35.3 percent in 2017, before rising to 38.1 percent in 2018 and reaching 48.8 percent by 2024.

The researchers also observed a growing polarization: participation in private English tutoring increased among higher-achieving students after the switch to absolute grading, while it declined among lower-achieving students.

"Simply changing the assessment method to absolute grading has limited effectiveness in reducing private tutoring," the researchers said, recommending that policymakers "design policy with a comprehensive view of the college admissions system, school education and the private tutoring market" to achieve the goal of curbing private education spending.


newday@heraldcorp.com