The World On arirang

Parents in Korea are spending more on educating their children than buying food.
According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, education expenses took up 17 percent of total household spending for families with two or more children last year.
This number is higher than the average spending on other necessities such as food, which took up 13 percent of total spending.
Families spent even less on transportation and their health with the numbers standing at 12 and 5.4 percent, respectively.
Education spending includes cost for private tutoring and cram schools.
In Korea, high scores in the national college entrance exam are essential to get into the country's best universities.
Many Korean parents believe that, by getting into good colleges, their children will be able to secure prestigious jobs and improve their status in society.
With such high hopes, more and more parents are foregoing their own leisure activities and spending less on other daily necessities.
But numbers show that once parents send their kids to college or marry them off, their spending on travel and eating out, increases significantly.
Experts say parents need to balance their spending as more families are falling into debt trying to pay for their children's education.
Lee Ji-yoon, Arirang News.