The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) released statistics yesterday on private education costs for 2009, noting that the total cost exceeded 21 trillion Won ($18 billion USD), but also stated that rate of steady increase had dropped off. MEST pointed out that last year’s rate of increase, which stood at 3.4 percent, was lower than the 4.3 percent registered in 2008, and that this effect was produced by the government’s measures to reduce private education costs. In and of itself, this claim is simply far-fetched, but even more worrisome are the private education cost measures that will be pursued by the Lee Myung-bak administration based on this claim.

눈속임 사교육 경감대책, 전면 재검토해야

교육과학기술부는 어제 2009년 사교육비 통계를 발표하면서, 총규모는 21조원을 넘었지만 증가세는 한풀 꺾였다고 강조했다. 3.4%인 지난해 사교육비 증가율은, 4.3%였던 2008년에 비해 낮은 것이며 이는 정부의 사교육비 대책이 효과를 낸 때문이라는 주장이었다. 그 자체로 억지에 불과하지만, 더 걱정스런 것은 이를 바탕으로 추진할 이 정부의 사교육비 대책이다.

[한겨레기사 2/23]