Parents find education disappointing

Less than half of parents in Korea are pleased with the quality of teaching that their children are receiving in school, the lowest among countries surveyed in a poll released Tuesday.

Forty-three percent of 1,000 respondents with kids aged four to 18 said they found the education provided to their children “fairly good” or “very good,” according to the Global Parents Survey by the Varkey Foundation. It is the lowest level among 29 countries surveyed between December last year and mid-January this year.

Russia and Germany trailed behind with 48 percent and 57 percent, followed by Japan and Turkey.

In contrast, Kenya recorded the highest rate of satisfaction with 92 percent of parents responding positively, followed by the United States with 91 percent and India with 87 percent.

The survey noted that the results showing Korean parents’ low satisfaction with teaching contrasts the country’s 11th-place rank among 70 nations in its global assessment of academic performance among 15-year-olds.

The survey also found that 52 percent of Korean parents picked “a happy environment” for children as the most important factor when choosing a school, higher than any other country surveyed.

Yonhap