THE monthly tuition for English-language kindergartens is an average of 720,000 won ($618), triple the cost of ordinary Korean-speaking preschools, The Chosun IIbo has reported.
South Korea currently has 181 English kindergartens. According to a report submitted by the South Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to Grand National Party lawmaker Suh Sang-kee for a parliamentary audit, average monthly tuition is the highest in Seoul, at 980,000 won ($841). Those in Seoul’s Gangnam District are the most expensive, costing 1.24 million won ($1,064) a month. But the Seocho District is home to the nation’s single most expensive English kindergarten, which costs 1.64 million won ($1,407) a month.
The country’s kindergartens where native English speakers teach the language to preschoolers are not officially authorized educational institutions under current law and are categorized as language institutes. English kindergartens began emerging four or five years ago in the affluent Gangnam area of southern Seoul.
