Educational Statistics

Satisfaction of Students and Parents with School Facilities

 

Author: Kum Jong-ye (Associate Research Fellow, KEDI)

 

Since 2023, the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) has been conducting the School Education Conditions Survey for Monitoring Public Education (KEMS) targeting elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide. The purpose of this survey is to build data at the national level to monitor the actual conditions of school education, with a focus on educational processes. To this end, students, parents, and teachers from approximately 300 schools nationwide are surveyed regarding their experiences and perceptions of school education. In the first full-scale survey conducted in 2023, participants included 21,526 students in Grades 4-6, 37,176 parents of students in Grades 1-6, and 5,578 teachers from 297 elementary schools nationwide. This edition of Educational Issues Focus examines key findings from the 2023 survey, with particular attention to students’ and parents’ satisfaction with school facilities.

 

■ Satisfaction with Overall School Life among Students and Parents

 

 

 First, an examination of survey results on overall satisfaction with school life – including school facilities – shows that 91.5% of participating students in Grades 4-6 responded that they were “satisfied” (“very satisfied” or “generally satisfied”) with their overall school life. In particular, 40.9% reported being “very satisfied,” and the mean satisfaction score, measured on a 0-3 scale, was 2.35, corresponding to a level above “generally satisfied.” Among parents of students in Grades 1-6, 97.7% responded that they were ”satisfied” with their children‘s overall school life, indicating similarly high levels of satisfaction. When examining responses by specific domains, both students and parents reported satisfaction rates of approximately 90% or higher across all areas. With respect to school facilities, 47.0% of students reported being ”very satisfied,” while 44.4% reported being ”generally satisfied,” yielding a mean satisfaction score of 2.37. Among parents, the proportion responding ”very satisfied” (29.0%) was lower than that of students; however, 89.3% of parents still reported overall satisfaction (”very satisfied” or ”generally satisfied”), indicating that both students and parents expressed high levels of satisfaction with school facilities.

 

■ Satisfaction with School Facilities by Student Characteristics

 

 

Results on satisfaction with school facilities by grade level and gender are presented in 'figure 2' and 'figure 3'. While satisfaction levels were high across all grades, the proportion of “very satisfied” responses and mean satisfaction scores tended to decline gradually as grade level increased. For example, among sixth-grade students, 37.1% reported being “very satisfied” and 50.5% “generally satisfied,” while 9.9% reported being “not satisfied” and 2.5% “not satisfied at all.” Among parents, satisfaction rates of approximately 89% (“very satisfied” or “generally satisfied”) were observed across all grade levels. Nevertheless, similar to student responses, the proportion of “very satisfied” responses and the mean satisfaction score tended to decline slightly as children advanced to higher grades. By gender, 90.7% of male students and 92.2% of female students reported satisfaction with school facilities. Although a higher proportion of male students (48.8%) responded “very satisfied” compared to female students, no clear gender differences were observed in mean satisfaction scores. Parental responses showed a similar pattern with both parents of male and female students reporting approximately 29% “very satisfied“ and a mean satisfaction score of 2.17.

 

■ Satisfaction with School Facilities by School Characteristics

 

 Next, satisfaction with school facilities was examined by regional scale and school site area per student. presents data from the 2023 Education Statistics Yearbook on total school site area and site area per student for elementary schools by regional scale. School site area, defined as the combined area of school buildings and athletic grounds, averaged approximately 34.6m2per student nationwide. Compared to metropolitan and city areas, site area per student was larger in township (eup), rural (myeon), and special or remote regions.

 

 

 However, as figures in the Education Statistics Yearbook are based on total site area and total student enrollment by region, they may differ from school-level site area per student. Accordingly, 'table 2' derives school-level site area per student using data on individual schools’ site areas and student enrollments from the Education Statistics Service (KESS). Given the influence of extreme values on means, median values were examined alongside averages. In 2023, across 6,164 elementary schools, the average site area per student was approximately 161.4m2, while the median was 41.7m2. Based on median values, site area per student was larger in township, rural, and special regions than in metropolitan and city areas, with particularly large values – exceeding 300m2 per student – observed in rural and special regions. These differences are likely attributable to declining student enrollment in existing schools in these areas.

 

 

 

When satisfaction with school facilities was examined by regional scale, both students and parents reported similar average satisfaction levels in metropolitan areas and township/rural/special regions, with slightly lower levels in small and medium-sized cities. However, no pronounced differences by regional scale were observed. In contrast, when satisfaction was analyzed by school site area per student, clearer differences emerged. Both students and parents reported higher satisfaction levels in schools with 100m2 or more per student. Among students in such schools, 52.9% reported being “very satisfied,” with a mean satisfaction score of 2.45, higher than in schools with smaller site areas. Similarly, among parents, 42.4% reported being “very satisfied,” with a mean satisfaction score of 2.32, again higher than in the other groups. Although schools in township, rural, and special regions tended to have larger site areas per student than those in urban areas, differences in satisfaction were more pronounced when schools were classified by site area per student rather than by regional scale.

 

As discussed above, satisfaction with school facilities among students and parents was generally very high, with nearly 90% of respondents across most subgroups reporting satisfaction (“very satisfied” or “generally satisfied”). While some variation was observed across subgroups, overall satisfaction remained consistently high. The School Education Conditions Survey for Monitoring Public Education (KEMS), following its implementation in elementary schools in 2023, expanded to middle schools in 2024 and high schools in 2025, using comparable survey items. As a result, future analyses are expected to enable comparisons of satisfaction with school facilities across different school levels, providing a more comprehensive understanding of trends over time.

 

 

                                                   

1) In 2024, the survey was completed for middle schools; in 2025, it is scheduled to be conducted for high schools; and in 2026, it is planned to be administered for elementary schools.