Preschool test ban forces South Korea’s English hagwons to rethink placement



Analysis Preschool test ban forces South Korea’s English hagwons to rethink placement New rules curb early selection but leave academies weighing how to group students after enrollment without formal exams Breslin SandSeptember 25, 2026 SHARE COPY LINK FACEBOOK X LINKEDIN MASTODON Private academies line a street in Sang-dong District, Bucheon, April 11, 2025 \| Image: Kimhs5400 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) South Korea’s new ban on entrance and placement tests for young children will remove one tool that English academies use to sort applicants by ability, while leaving them to manage the wide differences in English proficiency that remain after students enroll. The amendment to the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons takes effect on Oct. 1 and bars private academies from testing or evaluating young children for recruitment or ability-based placement. The law covers 유아, a legally defined category encompassing children from age 3 until they enter elementary school. The change targets © Korea Risk Group. All rights reserved. No part of this content may be reproduced, distributed, or used for commercial purposes without prior written permission from Korea Risk Group. LATEST ANALYSIS 01South Korea’s Mexico strategy runs into the hard limits of USMCA politics 02Lee Jae Myung’s Wall Street pitch tests South Korea’s capital market credibility 03US midterm clock raises stakes for South Korea’s $200 billion investment talks 04Lee’s Hormuz red line tests South Korea’s leverage in $350 billion US talks 05South Korea’s AI data center boom is colliding with the true cost of power 06Why South Korea cannot rebalance growth without stronger regional clusters 07Samsung, SK Hynix rejection exposes South Korea’s chip-grid financing problem 08Trump’s Cheongung social media post tests Seoul’s refusal to arm to Ukraine

Analysis

Preschool test ban forces South Korea’s English hagwons to rethink placement

New rules curb early selection but leave academies weighing how to group students after enrollment without formal exams

Breslin SandSeptember 25, 2026

Preschool test ban forces South Korea’s English hagwons to rethink placement

Private academies line a street in Sang-dong District, Bucheon, April 11, 2025 | Image: Kimhs5400 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

South Korea’s new ban on entrance and placement tests for young children will remove one tool that English academies use to sort applicants by ability, while leaving them to manage the wide differences in English proficiency that remain after students enroll.

The amendment to the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons takes effect on Oct. 1 and bars private academies from testing or evaluating young children for recruitment or ability-based placement.

The law covers 유아, a legally defined category encompassing children from age 3 until they enter elementary school.

The change targets

Preschool test ban forces South Korea’s English hagwons to rethink placement

LATEST ANALYSIS

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Breslin Sand