Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
Korean language classes fill up as students from migrant backgrounds increase
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By Jung Da-hyun
Schools with high concentrations of students from migrant backgrounds have increased 2.6-fold in Korea over the past five years, while improvements in the educational environment for them have lagged behind.
According to data submitted by the Ministry of Education to the office of Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Sunday, the number of schools with high concentrations of students coming from migrant backgrounds rose from 47 in 2020 to 123 in 2025.
Schools are designated as having a "high concentration" if they have more than 100 enrolled students from migrant backgrounds, accounting for 30 percent or more of the overall student body.
By region, Gyeonggi Province has the largest number of high migrant population schools, at 52. It was followed by Seoul with 18 schools, South Chungcheong Province with 10, Daegu with eight and Incheon with seven. Daejeon, Ulsan and North Jeolla Province had the lowest numbers, with just one such school each.
The increase comes despite Korea’s steadily declining school-age population. The number of students from migrant backgrounds surpassed 200,000 last year, accounting for about 4 percent of the nation’s total student population.
The surge is also placing growing pressure on support programs in schools, intensifying overcrowding in classes on the Korean language.
The average number of students per Korean language class nationwide rose sharply to 21.5 in 2024 from 13.8 in 2020.
The classes are intended to help students from migrant backgrounds adjust to school life and receive intensive language instruction before transitioning to regular classrooms. The education ministry recommends class sizes of around 10 students.
Rep. Jin stressed the need to improve educational conditions for students from diverse backgrounds.
“It is urgent to ensure that students with migrant backgrounds can access the education they need wherever they reside,” she said. “Education authorities must come up with practical measures to ease school concentration and classroom overcrowding, while expanding the number of teachers and support staff.”