The Ministry of Education plans to increase rewards for reporting illegal activities by private academies by approximately 10 times as part of efforts to eradicate illegal private tutoring. The ministry also aims to block tuition fee increases exceeding legally set standards by introducing new penalty surcharges to recover illicit gains obtained by academies.
The ministry announced the "Plan to Strengthen Academy Tuition Fee Management" at the "Consumer Price Special Management Ministerial Task Force" meeting held on Wednesday.
The government will first introduce separate penalty surcharges to recover illicit gains from violations such as excessive tuition collection by academies. The surcharge is expected to be "within 50% of revenue." Additionally, fines for violations of the Academy Act, including false representation of tuition fees, will be raised from the current 3 million won to 10 million won ($7,400). The ministry plans to pursue revision of the Academy Act within the first half of this year.
By revising the enforcement regulations of the Academy Act, the ministry also plans to increase rewards for reporting illegal private education activities, such as excessive tuition collection, from the current 100,000–200,000 won to 1–2 million won, a 10-fold increase.
Specifically, rewards for reporting excessive tuition charges will increase from 100,000 won to 1 million won. Rewards for reporting violations of teaching hours will rise from 100,000 won to 1 million won, and rewards for reporting unregistered tutoring activities will increase from 200,000 won to 2 million won.
Illegal activities related to academy tuition fees remain prevalent, with nearly 600 cases detected in the first quarter alone. Since January, the Ministry of Education and metropolitan and provincial offices of education have conducted special inspections of 15,925 academies nationwide, investigating excessive tuition collection as well as overcharging for miscellaneous expenses such as mock exam fees, dormitory fees, and transportation fees. Education authorities targeted academies ranked in the top 10% by registered tuition fees and prioritized those with the highest tuition fee increase rates over the past five years.
The inspections found a total of 2,394 violations from January through early this month, including 596 tuition-related cases. A total of 3,212 disciplinary actions were taken, including 58 referrals for prosecution or investigation, 24 registration cancellations, and 69 teaching suspensions. Fines totaling approximately 930 million won were imposed in 707 cases.
Among the detected cases, Academy A in Seoul's Gangnam-gu received a teaching suspension for continuing classes past 11 p.m., violating the education office's 10 p.m. late-night teaching restriction. Tutoring Center B in Seoul's Songpa-gu was found to have collected more than double the tuition rate registered with the local education support office. Academy C in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, was caught posting tuition fees on the internet that differed from the amounts registered with the education office. Both Academy B and Academy C received teaching suspensions.
The ministry also identified 351 suspected violations, including 174 tuition-related cases such as failure to register tuition changes, 22 cases of collecting self-study and textbook fees, and 27 cases of advertisements promoting advanced learning. These cases will be reported to the respective metropolitan and provincial offices of education. The government also plans to conduct "joint on-site inspections of tuition fees and late-night teaching" at academies in Seoul's Gangnam-gu and Daegu's Suseong-gu this month.
"Academies referred for prosecution or investigation will face active investigation by the National Police Agency as well as additional inspections by the National Tax Service," a ministry official said. "Cases of false or exaggerated advertising that resulted in administrative action will be reviewed by the Fair Trade Commission for potential violations of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising."
Meanwhile, the ministry reported that academy fee increases as of March this year were 1.9% compared to the same period last year, which is below or similar to the 2.2% consumer price inflation rate during the same period. "Academy tuition fees tend to increase somewhat in the first quarter due to the new school year effect but show a slowing trend after the second quarter through tuition cap management," the ministry said. "We will continue intensive inspections and enforcement to prevent household academy fee burdens from increasing and will respond strictly to violations."