Under 6 Million Students from Kindergarten to High School... Only Middle School Students Increasing

Average Number of Students per Class: 25.4 in Middle Schools... Only 16.1 in Kindergartens
Enrollment Rate of New Students in Higher Education Institutions Falls by 3.1%p to 84.5%

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] As the school-age population declines sharply, the number of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students has fallen below 6 million.

On the 26th, the Ministry of Education and the Korea Educational Development Institute announced the results of the "2021 Basic Education Statistics" survey, which investigated the status of schools, students, and teachers in nationwide kindergartens, elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions.

As of April 1, the total number of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students was 5,957,087, a 0.9% decrease from last year. Kindergarten students decreased the most, while only middle school students increased. The number of students by school level was ▲Kindergarten 582,572 (4.9%↓) ▲Elementary school 2,672,340 (0.8%↓) ▲Middle school 1,350,770 (2.7%↑) ▲High school 1,299,965 (2.8%↓).

The number of kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools was 20,771 schools, an increase of 31 schools (0.1%) from last year. Elementary, middle, and high schools increased by 0.6% to 11,777 schools, while kindergartens decreased by 0.5% to 8,659 schools. The total number of teachers in kindergartens, elementary, and secondary schools was 500,859, a 0.5% increase. Among them, the number of elementary, middle, and high school teachers increased by 0.5% to 435,582.

Except for kindergartens, the number of students per class is over 20. The number of students per class was 21.5 in elementary schools, 25.4 in middle schools, and 23.0 in high schools. Only kindergartens had 16.1 students per class.

Middle schools had 25.4 students per class, an increase of 0.2 from the previous year. Kindergartens decreased by 0.6, elementary schools by 0.3, and high schools by 0.4 respectively.

The number of multicultural students attending elementary and secondary schools was 160,056, an 8.6% increase from last year, continuing a steady rise since the survey began in 2012. The proportion of multicultural students among elementary, middle, and high school students rose by 0.2 percentage points to 3.0%.

The dropout rate among elementary, middle, and high school students in the 2020 academic year was 0.6% (32,027 students), down 0.4 percentage points from the previous academic year (1.0%, 52,261 students).

Due to the decline in the school-age population, the enrollment rate of freshmen in higher education institutions fell to 84.5%, down 3.1 percentage points from last year (87.6%). The decrease in enrollment rate was greater in non-metropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas. The metropolitan area enrollment rate was 80.8%, down 1.4 percentage points, while the non-metropolitan area rate was 88%, down 4.8 percentage points.

By type of school, the decrease in freshman enrollment rate was 4.0 percentage points for general universities, down to 94.9%, and 9.3 percentage points for junior colleges, down to 84.4%. However, graduate schools increased by 4.1 percentage points to 85.8%.

The number of students in higher education institutions, including enrolled, on leave, and those postponing degree acquisition, also decreased. The total number of registered students was 3,201,561, down 2.3% from last year. However, the number of graduate students increased by 2.1% to 327,415.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the total number of foreign students also decreased by 0.9% to 152,281. The number of degree-seeking foreign students increased by 6.2% to 120,018, but the number of non-degree foreign students decreased by 20.7% to 32,263.

The total number of higher education institutions was 426, three fewer than last year. By type, there were 190 general universities, 10 education universities, 134 junior colleges, 47 others including industrial universities, broadcasting and communication universities, cyber universities, and 45 graduate schools.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.