Illegal Activities Found in English Academies for Young Children in Seoul

An English academy for young children in Seoul received 1.4 million won a month as tuition. It is more than twice as expensive as the average monthly cost of a private kindergarten (approximately 550,000 won). Even so, I didn’t keep the advertisement that said ‘class for 6 hours’ a day. Academy B advertised itself as ‘XX International School’ on social media. They deceived private academies as ‘schools’.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 12th that it had investigated 283 English academies for young children between April and May, and found 95 (33.6%) of illegal activities. English academies for young children are called ‘English kindergartens’, but they are not ‘kindergarten’. Kindergartens must have teachers with early childhood education qualifications. It is a high-priced academy that receives between 1 million and 3 million won per month, and one out of three institutions violates related regulations.

According to the City Office of Education, 13 English academies for children were caught using names such as ‘English kindergarten’ and ‘international school’ illegally. It should be made clear that the preschool English academy is a ‘academy’. It is illegal to use the name of an official educational institution such as ‘kindergarten’ or ‘school’.

There was also an ‘excess collection’ academy that reduced the training time than promised and raised the tuition fee. Even after receiving more than 1 million won in tuition, the class time was 30 minutes less than advertised. Hagwons that did not accurately announce the increase in tuition fees or pretended to have native speaking instructors when there were no native speaking instructors were also caught.

These ‘infant English academies’ are one of the main reasons for the rapid increase in private education expenses for preschoolers. Lee Byung-min, a professor of English education at Seoul National University, said, “Hakwons are carrying out exaggerated and unproven marketing campaigns such as ‘There is a critical period for language’ and ‘It is necessary for preschoolers to pronounce native speakers.’” We need to think about whether it will be helpful for the child in the long run to teach only English all day long.” An official from the Ministry of Education also said, “On the Internet, there are only success stories of English kindergartens becoming good at English.