Chungdahm Learning


Chungdahm Learning is one of the largest private education companies in the Republic of Korea, with over 130,000 students across more than 200 schools. Chungdahm Learning has schools and services operating in North America, South America, China, Japan and Vietnam. Chungdahm Institute, a subsidiary of Chungdahm Learning, is an English language hagwon program.

History

Chungdahm Learning was founded in 1998 by CEO Young Hwa Kim, starting as Chungdahm Institute and incorporating in 2002. Chungdahm Learning focuses on teaching test-prep English to make English a second language for students. Chungdahm's methodology implements the use of smart classrooms using tablet PCs and smart textbooks, a first in Korea.
It launched April Institute to target younger elementary school students in 2007, and was listed on the KOSDAQ market in 2008. In 2012, Chungdahm Learning acquired CMS Education. In 2013, Chungdahm 3.0, a smart learning solution, was launched to operate Smart Class at CDL schools. 3.0 classes primarily used the tablet PC instead of traditional textbooks.
In April 2014, Chungdahm announced plans to partner with Knewton to incorporate Adaptive learning into its curriculum. Chungdahm entered into partnerships with Apax Holdings and EGroup in 2016 to expand Chungdahm's market presence into Vietnam.

Controversy

In 2015, a group of former CDI teachers won recognition as full-time employees by the Supreme Court of Korea entitling the teachers to unpaid severance pay and other benefits. Chungdahm Learning was found to have run a scheme treating foreign teachers as independent contractors instead of employees in contravention of the Labor Standards Act, thereby saving costs by not paying severance contributions to pension or health insurance.
Also in 2015, an employee of an April branch of Chungdahm Learning denied a job application from a person of color on the basis of race, asserting that their customers preferred Caucasian teachers. Park Kyung-ha, a spokeswoman for Chungdahm, admitted that the job posting was against the guidelines of CDI and the branch owner offered an apology and promise to not post discriminatory job listings in the future.