Despite increased state support for child care, many parents are spending more money on private education for children under age 6, a report showed on Monday.

According to research by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, the country’s private education market for preschool children is estimated to be 2.7 trillion won ($2.5 billion), which accounts for 0.2 percent of gross domestic product.

Private education for infants includes “play schools” taught both in Korean and English, culture centers operated by department stores and home study programs. The list did not include regular child-care programs at day-care centers and kindergartens.

In the survey of 3,392 households with preschoolers in 125 districts in Korea, parents spent an average of 80,100 won a month for their kids’ private education.

As children get older, parents tend to spend more money for their private education.

Of the 2.7 trillion won, parents have spent 2.1 trillion won for children aged between 3 and 6 and 55 billion won for infants under 3, the state-run research agency said in its report.

The report showed that 91.1 percent of parents with children aged 5 said they spent money on their private education, followed by parents with children aged 2 with 70.2 percent. About 17 percent of infants under 12 months also have attended educational programs operated by private institutions, the report said.

The growth of the private education market for preschoolers reflects parents’ dissatisfaction with child-care services at public kindergartens and day-care centers, the research institute said.

“To relieve the financial burden for parents with younger children, the government needs to provide quality education services by building more facilities and expanding support for public kindergartens and day-care centers,” said Seo Moon-hee, a lead researcher at the institute.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)