I want to play, but I have to go to the academy… 4 out of 10 children go missing after school

The most desired activity is ‘playing with friends’, but the reality is that 54% go to private academy… Worries about appearance take precedence over ‘job’

Contrary to the desire of Korean children and teenagers to hang out with friends, in reality, more than half of them are heading to private academies, according to a survey.

◆ Children who want to play, the reality is that 54% go to ‘academies/tutoring’

According to the ‘2025 Key Children’s Sector Statistics’ announced by the Child Rights Guarantee on the 4th, it was confirmed that the gap between the activities that children in Korea hope to pursue after school and their actual lives is very large.

The number of children who wanted to play with friends after school reached 42.9%, but only 18.6% actually played with friends. On the other hand, while only 25.2% of children wanted to attend private academies or private tutoring, more than half (54.0%) were actually taking academy classes. The gap between hope and reality has widened to 28.8 percentage points (p).

The rate of students wishing to do homework at home was also 18.4%, but the actual rate of doing it was 35.2%, suggesting that children’s ‘right to rest’ is not sufficiently guaranteed.

◆ The number one concern is grades, and the number two concern is ‘appearance’ instead of ‘occupation’.

Changes were also noticed in the concerns of teenagers. The number one concern for teenagers aged 13 to 18 is still ‘studying (grades and aptitude)’, but the number two priority has changed from the past.

The ranking of concerns at the time of the 2020 survey was study (74.6%), job (42.9%), and appearance (38.6%). However, from 2022, concerns about ‘appearance’ began to overtake ‘occupation’, and in the 2024 survey, studies (76.1%), appearance (42.2%), and occupation (36.7%) recorded in that order, solidifying the second place. Concerns about friendships also increased significantly from 27.0% in 2020 to 34.0% in 2024.

An official from the Children’s Rights Guarantee said, “There is an urgent need to build community-centered infrastructure to guarantee children’s right to play,” and suggested, “In particular, education programs that increase self-esteem and improvement of social awareness should be carried out in parallel to prevent appearance-centered values ​​from becoming entrenched in adolescence.”

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