Government ministries have jointly developed measures to reduce school uniform costs. Authorities will conduct a comprehensive survey of uniform prices and suppliers at all schools nationwide to reform the pricing structure, while supporting "producer cooperatives" to become uniform suppliers. The government also plans to phase out formal-style uniforms, which have drawn criticism for being expensive and uncomfortable.
The Ministry of Education announced the "School Uniform Price Improvement Plan" at the "Consumer Price Special Management Ministerial Task Force" meeting held at the Sejong Government Complex on the 26th.
The Ministry of Education will conduct a comprehensive survey of uniform costs at approximately 5,700 middle and high schools nationwide from the 27th through the 16th of next month, in cooperation with provincial and municipal education offices.
The survey will analyze uniform prices by school and the status of selected suppliers, then review the appropriateness of pricing based on the results. Given widespread concerns that rising uniform costs stem from casual wear and athletic uniforms rather than subsidized formal uniforms, the ministry plans to establish price caps by item category within the first half of this year.
Currently, annual price caps are set for school uniforms, with provincial education offices and local governments providing subsidies equivalent to the cap amount to individual students. However, casual wear and athletic uniforms are excluded from subsidies as they are considered additional purchases.
The ministry also proposed shifting uniform support to a demand-centered approach. The plan focuses on allowing students and parents to choose both the support method and uniform type. The Ministry of Education aims to phase out formal-style uniforms, which have been widely criticized as expensive and uncomfortable.
To diversify uniform suppliers, the government will promote participation by "producer cooperatives" composed of local small business owners. Cooperatives participating in bids will receive additional points, and the government will provide separate consulting for creating joint brands. New regulations will also be established to promote preferential public procurement of products and services from social solidarity economy enterprises including cooperatives.
Additionally, the Ministry of Education will operate an intensive reporting period through March to prevent unfair practices such as bid-rigging among uniform companies. Given the new semester season, the ministry plans to intensively monitor suspected collusion cases in cooperation with the Fair Trade Commission.
The Ministry of Education also unveiled measures to strengthen private academy fee management. The ministry will conduct special inspections of academies through next month to examine whether tuition fees are being raised through irregular methods. Inspections will cover excessive tuition collection, overcharging for miscellaneous expenses, and whether self-study time is being counted as instruction time.
"We plan to prioritize on-site inspections of academies in the top 10% for tuition fees among all registered academies and tutoring centers, as well as those with high tuition increase rates over the past five years," said Seol Se-hoon, Director General of Policy Coordination at the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education is also pursuing legal amendments to strengthen penalties for academy violations. The plan includes establishing new penalties to recover unjust profits from private education businesses through excessive tuition fees, and significantly raising fines from the current 3 million won to 10 million won. Reporting rewards will be increased tenfold.