Private tutoring and academic achievement in Korea: An approach through PISA-2006

Abstract

Although not exclusive to the Republic of Korea's educational system, the pervasiveness of private tutoring, and its consequences, serve to distinguish it from systems operated in other countries. This paper quantifies the impact of time spent on private tutoring on the performance of students in the three competence fields assessed in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Instrumental variables are applied in a multilevel framework to address endogeneity. Our results indicate that the impact of time dedicated to private tutoring on academic performance depends on the particular competence: positive for mathematics, positive but decreasing for reading, and non-significant for science. © Korean Educational Development Institute 2012.