More than 4,000 elementary, middle and high schools across South Korea have shut their doors as the country’s student population shrinks, new data shows.
According to the Ministry of Education’s latest figures, revealed on Sunday by Representative Jin Sun-mee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, 4,008 schools under 17 regional education offices nationwide have closed so far as student numbers continue to decline.
Junior schools account for most closures, with 3,674 shut down permanently, compared with 264 middle schools and 70 high schools. Over the past five years alone, 158 schools have closed, and an additional 107 schools are projected to shut down over the next five years.
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South Korea’s birth rate ― the lowest in the world with the total fertility rate remaining below 0.8 ― is the chief reason behind this contraction. A rate of about 2.1 children per woman is needed to keep the population the same.
The pace of closures also suggests that enrolment decline is expected to accelerate in provincial regions rather than in the capital area.
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The largest number of school closures is in North Jeolla province, which has 16 schools affected. This is followed by South Jeolla province with 15 closures, Gyeonggi province with 12, and South Chungcheong province with 11 schools closing.