Last Year’s Elementary School Teacher Appointment Pass Rate Falls Below Half for the First Time in 9 Years

Pass Rate 48.6%... Gwangju Lowest at 13.6%
New Appointment Scale Shrinks Due to Decline in School-Age Population

Last year, the pass rate for the elementary school teacher employment exam dropped to 48.6%, falling below 50% for the first time in nine years.

According to the '2022 Education Statistics Analysis Report' released on the 23rd by the Korea Educational Development Institute, 7,338 candidates applied for the 2022 nationwide elementary school teacher employment exam, and 3,565 passed. This is the lowest pass rate (48.6%) since 2013, when only 43.5% of test takers passed. It is the first time in nine years that the pass rate has fallen below half.

From the 2014 to 2017 academic years, the pass rate for elementary school teacher employment was in the high 60% range, but it has declined every year since the 2018 academic year. The pass rate was 69.5% in 2017, nearly 70%, but dropped to 63.9% in 2018. It continued to fall to 57.3% in 2019, 53.9% in 2020, and 50.8% in 2021, before finally dropping below 50% in the 2022 academic year.

A scene of an elementary school classroom. The photo is not related to any specific content of the article.

The reason the pass rate for the employment exam is steadily decreasing is due to a reduction in the number of newly hired teachers as the school-age population declines. The number of new hires, or successful candidates, dropped sharply from 7,369 in 2014 to 3,565 last year, which averages an annual decrease of 8.7%. Meanwhile, the number of applicants decreased from 10,638 to 7,338 during the same period, averaging a 4.5% annual decline. In other words, because the reduction in new hires is happening faster than the decrease in applicants, competition has become fiercer and the pass rate has inevitably fallen.

Looking at the pass rate by region, Gwangju had the lowest pass rate nationwide. Gwangju's pass rate was only 13.6%, meaning only about one out of every ten applicants passed. Following were Seoul (29.8%) and Daejeon (33.3%), indicating that passing the employment exam is more difficult in special and metropolitan cities. This is interpreted as applicants concentrating in large cities, which are perceived to have better working environments and more schools clustered together, rather than in provincial areas where commuting times can vary greatly depending on the assigned school.

Government to Announce Mid- to Long-Term Teacher Supply and Demand Plan This Month

Experts believe that unless the enrollment quota for teacher training colleges is reduced, the downward trend in employment exam pass rates will continue. Accordingly, the government plans to announce the mid- to long-term teacher supply and demand plan for 2024?2027 within this month.

Last week, following a meeting between the People Power Party and the Ministry of Education, they stated, "We share the recognition that, due to the decline in the school-age population, it is necessary to adjust the number of teachers to an appropriate scale and gradually regulate new teacher recruitment." They added, "We also agreed on the need to strengthen management to ensure efficient use of teaching personnel and to adjust the enrollment quotas of teacher training institutions."

According to population projections by Statistics Korea, the elementary school-age population (ages 6?11) is expected to be 2.02 million in 2027, a 25.2% decrease from last year's 2.701 million.

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