Angry South Korean students call tutor titan’s childbirth advice ‘sexually humiliating’

MegaStudy Group chairman Son Joo-eun slammed for telling school students that ‘giving birth is more important than going to college’

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Babies at a postnatal care centre in Seoul. A South Korean tutoring firm’s boss has come under fire for telling school students to prioritise childbirth over higher education. Photo: EPA-EFE/Yonhap

Published: 3:24pm, 27 Nov 2024

Son Joo-eun, chairman of the prominent private education company MegaStudy Group, is under fire for controversial comments made during a lecture to secondary school students in South Korea.

Son said that “giving birth is more important than going to college” and warned that “a life without academic success is worse than that of a sex worker”.

According to the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education, Son delivered a special lecture titled “Study to Help Others” to about 500 secondary school students, including both boys and girls, in Daegu last Friday. During the lecture, Son addressed South Korea’s demographic crisis, advocating for special university admissions policies favouring teenagers who give birth.

“Having children is more important than going to college. I urge girl students to change their way of thinking,” he said. “Giving birth in your late teens or early 20s is one of the most significant contributions you can make to this country.”

He also said, “If possible, get married and have children quickly. If marriage isn’t an option, then just have children first.”

Son also revealed a past incident where he told a struggling student that their life could be “worse than that of a sex worker.” He said: “When I saw this student, whose face was covered in acne and who ranked 20th in the class, I thought there was no hope for them outside of academics.”