The Educational Testing Service, the U.S.-based firm that administers TOEFL and TOEIC tests, announced Wednesday that it will award $72,000 to students in Korea through its annual TOEFL Scholarship program.ETS will recognize and award 24 qualified students each with a $3,000 scholarship to fund their undergraduate or graduate study in Korea or overseas. Candidates must submit their TOEFL test score to demonstrate their English proficiency. Additionally, undergraduate students must have a grade p

Prices of private education and other extracurricular activities grew at the fastest pace in about five years in February, data showed Wednesday, indicating the heavier burden that parents have to shoulder in educating their children.According to the data provided by Statistics Korea, prices of private institutes and supplementary education services across the country jumped 5.3 percent last month from a year earlier. This marked the fastest gain since January 2008 when it rose 5.8 percent on-ye

South Korea's teachers union on Sunday rejected the labor ministry's ultimatum that called for a rewriting of its bylaws that would prevent fired educators from staying on as members.The moves comes as Seoul said last week that the union must make changes to its rules and warned that failure to do so would result in the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) losing its rights as a formal labor union that can engage in legitimate negotiations with schools. Under current labor law only

South Korean households' spending on education declined to a six-year low last year due to an economic downturn and increased government subsidies, data showed Sunday. The ratio of education expenditures to consumption spending in a household with two or more family members reached 12 percent, the lowest level since 2006 when it was 11.5 percent, according to the data by Statistics Korea. Households' education expenditure-to-consumption spending ratio rose at double-digit rates in 1997, posting

A provincial education chief who was probed last month by police for bribery charges was taken to a hospital after an apparent suicide attempt on Tuesday, police said.Kim Jong-seong, chief of the South Chungcheong Office of Education, was rushed to a nearby hospital in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of Seoul, police said, adding that he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.The 63-year-old official has been under intense police investigation for allegedly ordering government official

Korean people picked “love” as their favorite word in English, a survey showed. EBS, a state-run education television network, conducted the survey on 1,210 viewers to see which English words they like to hear and say.Among 700 English words chosen by the respondents, “love” topped the list at 6.12 percent followed by “happy” at 4.55 percent.“Dream,” “family,” “passion,” “believe,” “friend” and “challenge” are also ranked high on the chart. EBSe, and EBS channel dedicated to English education, d