Families with elementary to high school students in South Korea spent a record total of more than 27 trillion won, or around 20-point-five billion U.S. dollars, on private education last year.

According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, total household spending on private education stood at 27-point-one trillion won in 2023, up four-point-five percent from a year earlier.

After a seven-point-eight percent on-year decline due to COVID-19 in 2020, private education spending climbed 21 percent in 2021, and by ten-point-eight percent in 2022.

Despite a slight drop in the on-year surge, the overall amount and the monthly average per student broke previous records, with the monthly average increasing five-point-eight percent on-year to 434-thousand won.

While 78-point-five percent of all students took part in private education, up point-two percentage point on-year, the average weekly hours of participation stood at seven-point-three hours.