in this regard, the international organizations have reiterated their views that the Korean legal systems concerning the establishment and recognition of trade unions are not in compliance with the relevant international standards, calling for improvements in those systems. Please specify the Government’s plan to implement the international organizations’ recommendations. In addition, please specify the reason why the ratification of ILO Conventions Nos. 87 and 98 is being delayed, the Government’s official position on the ratification of the Conventions and its plan to ratify those Conventions. 69. The CESCR welcomes that the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court in Korea have shown a significant change in their positions about the cases where workers were indicted on charges of obstruction of business due to their participation in strikes (industrial actions). However, this change alone does not regulate the prosecution itself or prevent employers from making complaints on industrial actions, but simply means that it is less likely that strikers may be found guilty. Moreover, it is reported that the situations concerning the civil proceedings initiated by companies over industrial actions remain unchanged. The CESCR expects that the Government will have a full understanding about the values of industrial actions as part of the fundamental rights under the Constitution of the State Party and the international standards. Please provide detailed statistical data on the numbers of employers’ complaints and civil lawsuits filed over industrial actions since 2010, the number of criminal prosecutions and the number of the cases where the courts found the workers concerned guilty, and give detailed explanations on the tendencies of court rulings after the aforementioned decision of the Supreme Court and the Government’s views in this regard. 70. As in August 2016, there was a large gap between the unionization rates of regular workers (16.5%) and non-regular workers (2.6%). This gap seems to indicate that protection of the three basic labour rights, which are constitutional rights themselves, is weak, particularly among non-regular workers. It appears that the Government needs to take actions to protect these constitutional rights so long as such actions do not undermine the principle of voluntary labour-management relationship. Please give a detailed explanation on the Government’s view about the need to work out institutional measures to protect three basic labour rights of non-regular workers. Issue 13: Inequality in Education and Excessive Academic Competition Current status 71. In Korea, since it is customary to discriminate people on the ground of their educational attainments and rank people based on their schools/universities, those who have graduated from better schools/universities have more chances to get better jobs. Amid the fierce academic competition, especially for admissions to better high schools and universities, there exists an enormous market for private education. This private education market is where education inequality is created between the children in high-income families who can afford to receive private education and those in low-income families who cannot afford to. This inequality leads to a vicious circle, in that the children in low-income families are later forced to work in non-regular, low-paying and low-quality jobs in this highly dualized labour market with regular and nonregular workers. Since 2011, private education participation rate decreased (from 71.7% in 2011 to 68.8% in 2015) while monthly expenditure for private education per student increased from KRW 335,000 in 2011 to KRW 355,000 in 2015. This means that a growing number of students cannot afford to receive any private education whereas the students who can afford to receive private education spend more on private education. 72. Furthermore, monthly expenditure on private education per student was KRW 420,000 among the families with average monthly income of KRW 7 million or more, but was KRW 66,000 among the families 17 / 25