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To understand the story, you need to understand something about Koreans. They regard education as the most important thing they can give their children - more, even, than food and clothing in some cases. Families put themselves through tortuous work hours often doing multiple jobs - and require their children to do much the same.

So many children do what amounts to three shifts at school, and then do homework in addition.

The early morning shift is at national school, and so is an early evening period with homework to follow. In the afternoons, children are sent to "hogwans" or private schools for tuition in a wide range of subjects. Hogwans are big business - but most are small, and many rely on foreign tutors.

But class numbers are falling dramatically - in one school, a single class reduced from 27 pupils to 2 last month as parents lose the second jobs and suffer cuts in income at first jobs.

There are no figures for the number of tutors being made redundant but discussions amongst those in Seoul and Daegu, Korea's largest cities, are showing that the numbers of actual and pending redundancies is rising fast.

My friend has lost his job

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