A graduation ceremony is held every year on the last day of the school year but in some elementary schools in Gangwon-do Province. According to the Gangwon-do Office of Education, the number of schools that do not have graduates in 2020 is ten. Compared in 2019 that only one elementary school had no graduates, it is about ten times more than in 2019.

▲ School is not used as school any more.

With a low birth rate, a small school consolidation policy, which is one of the causes of an increasing number of closing schools, has been implemented since 1982. The purpose of this policy is to reduce the expense put in small schools so as to raise economic efficiency. Through this policy, the number of closing schools has increased.

▲ The number of closing schools according to the small school consolidation policy.

In agricultural regions, rural to urban migration affects the increase of closing schools. According to a local education finance notification, there are 821 and 725 schools that were closed respectively in South Jeolla and North Gyeongsang, as of 2018. Seoul and Busan, where both are the biggest cities in South Korea, have one school and 36 closing schools respectively. Compared to Seoul and Busan, the number of closing schools in Geollanam-do Province and Gyeongsangbuk-do Province is hundreds of times higher.

As the school-age population decreases, there are several things that adults including parents and educators are worried about. The first thing is that students cannot live in a community. They do not have chances to have group activities than others, and this makes them cannot compete in their community. So, their parents and teachers worry about their sociability when they become adults. The second one is that they have inefficient education. In schools where there are few students like in agricultural regions, similar grades are grouped together in classes. In this case, only twenty minutes of forty minutes is provided to the other grade, and the other twenty minutes is provided to the other grade students. So, it can be inefficient for them.

▲ The number of proportion of school-age population is decreased.

Like these, small school consolidation policy and regional features make closing schools increase. As these are caused by the low birth rate, the government has to implement policies that can increase the birth rate. Also, if agricultural regions are developed, a number of people would gather, and it will lead to the prevention of an increasing the number of closing schools.

January 24, 2021

by Lee Dowon