Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tfunk]

How much are the tuition fees for a hagwon...that you know of?

Also, have the prices of tuition changed in relation to the price of inflation over the past 3 years? Has the price of tuition increased in relation to the cost of living over the past 3 years?

[BS.Dos.]

Think a lot charge by the month. I've heard figures of 200-300,000, but I may be wrong. I usually am.

[daz1979]

Hagwons around my city charge 150k - 160k per month

[John_ESL_White]

150,000 for a "listening lab", students have 5 hours/ week interaction with a teacher and unlimited use of labs.

to

200,000 for 3 hours/wk with a FT only in classes no bigger than 6

to

350,000 for TOEFL classes 3 hours/ week.... (mixed FTs and KTs)

that I know of for sure...

[tfunk]

Wow, at 150,000 a month my director is milking it in. I wonder what the overhead is for the building?

If you take 150,000 as the base rate per student and 2,200,000 as the base salary for foreign teacher....

15 students at 150,000 = 2.2 million Won.

Of course, Korean co-teachers, our apartment costs and flight, school bus, electricity, secretary, directors profit etc. have to be figured into it.

I wonder what the lower limit of students to foreign teacher is before a hagwon will be closed? I reckon 40 per month at 150,000 = 6,000,000.

[sojourner1]

The hagwon that teachers kindy before afternoon classes is the one really raking it in. My old hagwon charged 1 million per kindy student per month and we had 63 of them. 6 foreign teachers taught the kindy classes from 9:30 to 12:00 and then 1:00 to 2:45.

Then regular elementary and middle school classes went from 3:00 to 6:00 or 7:00 that charged 150,000 per student per month per class. These were classes like Phonics A and B, Let's Go, English Time, and Backpack.

Our workday was from 9:00 to 6:00 or 7:00 for a cool 2 million Won a month. This was in 2007 and I seen the same job listed recently going for the same amount of money.

[sulperman]

Anybody have any idea how much a hagwon has to pay for it's name? I mean, how much a school has to pay each year to be an ECC or a SLP or a Wonderland or whatever?

Often when I am bored at work I will try to calculate the millions that my boss makes- not for any particular reason, just boredom.

Anybody know?

[harryh]

A GnB I work at in Busan charges 120,000 a month. Kids come in five days a week, but only see a foreign teacher once a week.

[losing_touch]

Mine charges 150,000 per month. Students come in 5 days per week. They have 40 minutes with the Korean teacher. Then, they get 40 minutes with a foreign teacher.

[T-J]

Elementary School students 180,000 four one hour sessions per week

Middle School students 250,000 three two hour sessions per week

High School students 280,000 two 100 min sessions per week

[ABC KID]

A government website went public this week, showing the prices that all hagwons charge. It was designed for parents to compare prices. I can't remember the website address though. This might be interesting for the op. Can anyone help out? The website will presumably only be in Korean though...

[yeoja]

[mnhnhyouh]

There is a legal maximum, but it is often exceeded.

The hagwon I worked at last year charged 440,000W per student per month. But those students went there 5 days per week, one hour per day with a Korean English teacher, and one with a native speaker, so they were there for 10 hours per week. They were given 10 hours of homework per week as well. The maximum students per class was 6, and my average class size was 3.75.

The rule, and it was fairly strictly enfoced was no Korean in the academy.

As a consequence their English improved very quickly, and it was for this reason that the academy could charge as much as it could, they delivered.

In reality this is still fairly cheap, as it comes down to about 11,000W per hour in the school.

h

[poet13]

"Anybody have any idea how much a hagwon has to pay for it's name? I mean, how much a school has to pay each year to be an ECC or a SLP or a Wonderland or whatever?

Often when I am bored at work I will try to calculate the millions that my boss makes- not for any particular reason, just boredom.

Anybody know?"

My first job was at an ECC. The director paid about 2,000,000 a month for the name. hen she stopped paying. They visited after a couple of months. Told her to take down all the ECC emblazoned everywhere. That was several places outside, including a banner about 25 feet wide, and a vertical sign about 15 feet high. Also, ECC was on the front of every step from the first to the fourth floor.

She had a piece cut to fit into the first C, so now it's EEC.

[frankly speaking]

The overhead to run a school is quite high. Teacher's salary is one of the lowest expenses. It costs more to run a bus and a driver than a teacher. Insurance is quite high, same as petrol prices.

Certain procvinces do have a price limit that they can charge for hagwons. Back four or five years ago it was 100,00 for Daejon area. The way that Hagwons get around it is by having two separate classes one with a Korean teacher the other with a Native speaker. Some schools only have each teacher teach 45 minutes and the students get a break in between. They charge for 2 hour classes but only pay 1 1/2 hours for teachers.

Kindergartens or the like can charge a lot more. Most of the one's that I worked at or knew about charged an average of 700,000 won a month some as much as 900,000. These kindies can be quite profitable. Some have 50 kids, that is a lot of money but the overhead is so high that the directors still only bring in about 10-15 million a month.

The one thing that teachers often neglect to realize that there is a lot of capital needed to establish a school in the first place. Most Hagwons that I know spent over 500,000,000 won to get going.

Teachers often think that they are deserve so much more because they do all of the work. Teaching is less than 20% if the work needed in a school.

Being a teacher is a lot easier and a safer way to make money. If someone takes the risk to open a school, they deserve to make serious profit.