SEOUL, March 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's private education expenses hit a record high last year despite the falling number of students, statistical office data showed Thursday.
Spending on private after-school classes among primary, middle and high school students totaled 27.1 trillion won (20.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, up 4.5 percent compared to the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.
It kept a record-breaking trend for the third straight year. The result was based on a survey of about 74,000 students from some 3,000 schools.
The total number of students declined 1.3 percent to around 5.21 million last year. The monthly average expenditure on private education per student gained 5.8 percent to 434,000 won (330 dollars).
Considering students who actually participated in private education, such as cram schools, the per-month expenses advanced 5.5 percent to 553,000 won (420 dollars).
The private education participation rate added 0.2 percentage points over the year to 78.5 percent in 2023.
The rate for elementary school students went up 0.8 percentage points to 86.0 percent, while the figures for middle and high school students increased to 75.4 percent and 66.4 percent, respectively.
High education cost has been seen as one of the factors behind the country's ultra-low birth rate.
The total fertility rate, or the number of children a woman is expected to bear during life, posted a new low of 0.72 last year, keeping a downward trend for the eighth consecutive year. ■