This article investigates the effect of elementary school students plan to enter special-purposed/independent private high schools on their demand for private tutoring expenditure using 2014 Study on the Qualitative Level and Actual Condition of Elementary School administered by Korean Educational Development Institute.
First, we found that proportion of students planning to apply for special-purposed/ independent private high schools is 36.5%, which is a growth from 33.7% in 2011. Second, students who increase spending on private education after deciding to apply for special-purposed/independent private high schools accounted for 26.9% while students who decrease spending on private education accounted for only 6.8%. This shows that, at the elementary school level, students spend on private education in order to apply for special-purposed/independent private high schools. Third, more than a half of sixth grade parents who plan to send their children to special-purposed/independent private high schools answered that they are collecting information about competition and supporting their children participating in it, and that they are helping their children write personal statement and reading portfolio. It means that various types of extracurricular activities are done to apply for special-purposed/independent private high schools.
Applying Heckman two-stage model, Tobit model and propensity score matching to dataset, we found that those who plan to apply for special-purposed/independent private high schools spend on private education from 16.1% to 17.2% greater than those who don’t. Although special-purposed/independent private high schools accepted a certain proportion of students using self-directed learning as an evaluation element since 2011, demands for private education to apply for special-purposed/independent private high schools have been sustained.