By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
One out of every three elementary schools nationwide has closed due to a steep fall in the number of students.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development said 3,016 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide were shut down as of March this year, accounting for 20.8 percent of the original total of 14,452 schools, as a knock-on effect of the country's low birth rate.
Among them, the number of elementary schools closed was 2,928 or 31.9 percent of 9,174.
About 2.4 percent of middle schools and 0.5 percent of high schools have also been closed. Usually students and teachers at these schools are merged with another nearby school.
Most of the closed schools are situated in Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces, which are agricultural regions where the number of students dropped sharply.
Some small towns in North Jeolla Province and North Gyeongsang Province expect to have a more than 50 percent decrease in student numbers over the next 10 years. Even schools in the urban areas are seeing shortages and some are on the verge of being shut down.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Planning and Budget said more than 600 schools will merge with other schools in the coming five years.
The closed school buildings are being renovated for other uses such as dormitories, welfare and training centers, religious facilities, factories or warehouses, the spokesman said.
Among them, 212 have already been turned into museums, art halls, swimming pools and tourist attractions for the region. They exhibit traditional musical instruments and farming machinery, and are used for concerts and plays, he said.