Korea’s spending on private education dropped for a second straight year in 2011 as the number of students declined, affected by a chronically low birth rate, a report showed Friday.

South Korean parents spent a total of 20.1 trillion won ($17.76 billion) last year on private education for their children, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea.

The decline followed a 3.5 percent fall in 2010, which was the first private education spending drop since the agency started to compile related data in 2007.

The fall is attributed to a reduction in the number of students. Last year, the number of elementary, middle school and high school students totaled 6.99 million, down 3.4 percent from a year earlier.

The number of elementary school students dropped 5.1 percent over the cited period, driven by the low birth rate. Numbers of middle and high school students also shrank 3.3 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

Private education spending per student averaged 240,000 won per month, an amount similar to the level tallied a year earlier, the report showed.

 (Yonhap News)