The nation’s private education spending per child in 2014 edged up 1.2 percent on-year from a year earlier, Statistics Korea said on Sunday.

Officials attributed the increase to a sharp rise in spending on private tutoring for art, music and physical education, from 47,000 won in 2013 to 50,000 won in 2014. The agency suveyed 78,000 students and parents of 1,189 elementary, middle and high school students nationwide.

Despite the fall in consumption last year, high-income parents turned out to have paid more on private education than in 2013.

By age, the average private tutoring expenditure for elementary students stood the same at 232,000 won, while that of junior high and high school students jumped 1.2 percent to 270,000 won and 2.9 percent to 230,000 won, respectively.

(joowonc@heraldcorp.com)