Number of elementary school students drops to record low

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- The number of elementary school students in South
Korea has fallen to an all-time low this year, thanks to the nation's
world-lowest birth rate, a government report said Monday.

As of April 2009, a total of 3.47 million students were attending elementary
schools nationwide, marking a fall of some 200,000 from the previous year,
according to the report released by the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology.
The figure was the lowest since the government began to compile related
statistics in 1962.
The number of elementary school students totaled 4.1 million in 1962 before
peaking at 5.81 million in 1971, the report noted.
According to the latest statistics released by the World Health Organization,
South Korea had an average of 1.2 babies per woman of reproductive age, the
lowest among 193 countries. The nation's figure also compares with the OECD
countries' average of 1.73 babies.
South Korea's record-low birthrate is attributed to the increased economic
activities of women and insufficient childcare support for couples.
The report also said that the total number of students in South Korean
preliminary and secondary schools has been reduced by over 170,000 to 8.03
million this year.
With the steady decline in pupils, the number of students per teacher also fell
to 19.8 in elementary school, 18.4 in middle school and 15.7 in high school, it
noted, In 1970, a single elementary school teacher had to care for record 56.9
pupils.
Meanwhile, the number of students enrolled at institutions of higher learning
above the two-year junior college increased by 28,244 from last year to 3.59
million this year, the report showed.
The number of foreign students studying at domestic colleges and universities
also rose by over 10,000 over the past year to 50,591, it added.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)

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