II. Education and Children 1. Degradation of Public Education (50-54 and 285-289) 21. Through the free market the Government aims to improve the quality and reduce the cost of education by widening customer’s choice and strengthen competition among schools emphasizing competition, liberalization and efficiency in its education policy. Paragraph 52 of the Government written replies states that Diverse High Schools project such as incorporating independent private schools intend to improve the quality of public education. However, the project unilaterally allows privileged students with high performance in their admission to the so-called “Illyu Daehak (privileged universities)” and therefore there is concern for the perpetuation of entrance exam competition and academic elitism, as well as increase in private education spending and education gap among classes. 22. The Government states that “[t]he near-100 percent retention rate of elementary or middle schools indicates that equal opportunity for education is provided in Korea.” However, in 2005, the number of drop out reached 15,669 (0.8%) among middle school students and 23,567 (1.3%) among high school students. More detailed researches as well as concrete countermeasures need to be developed for the 30,000 or more children that annually drop out of school. 23. According the OECD Education at a Glance 2009, the level of private spending was the highest among member states. While the Government’s expenditure for public education of 4.5% was lower than OECD average (4.9%), the private burden rate for public education spending of 2.9% was three times higher than OECD average (0.8%). High proportion of private spending reflects the lack of government support for education welfare. According to the Statistics Korea2, the total spending for private education of primary and secondary students was estimated to reach 20.9 trillion KRW. In 1990 an average household spending for private education was 20,000 KRW for a monthly consumer spending of 670,000 KRW. However, by 2008 spending for private education steeply increased to 340,000 KRW for an average consumer spending of 2 The Statistics Korea is a new name of the former National Statistical Office. 7