Glut of elementary school teachers

By Walt Gardner

If it’s any consolation to the hundreds of students majoring in elementary education in South Korea who can’t find jobs, they are not alone. A similar situation exists in the United States. In the final analysis, the disconnect between supply and demand in both countries is a unique characteristic of the teacher labor market.

Although the cuts varied from city to city, the 40.2 percent nationwide teacher reduction policy from 5,549 to 3,321 new hires was necessary as a result of South Korea’s overall shrinking birthrate, coupled with bleak projections for the years ahead.

In the U.S., twice as many kindergarten to 5th grade teachers are being trained than needed, leading to a flooded labor market. But the situation there is due to a combination of state budget cuts, hiring freezes and delayed retirement.

Teacher universities in South Korea and the U.S. are being blamed for the glut. Critics charge that they should cap the number of entrants. There is some truth to that claim. But the education labor market is different than other markets because of the difficulty of aligning the production of teachers to local needs.

To a large extent, predictions for the number of elementary school teachers needed is a guessing game. The tendency toward oversupply in elementary schools is a function of candidates’ interest, according to Amee Adkins, an associate dean of the college of education at Illinois State University, and the president of the Illinois Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

This imprecise data explains in part why students in elementary school preparation programs at universities are up in arms. They made a serious commitment to their studies that they assumed would pay off in a coveted position. But they never questioned the validity of their assumption. No one doubts their dedication ― but instead their naivety. They should know that public schools are extremely sensitive to demographic changes.

Demanding that teacher preparation programs at universities restrict the number of students they admit will likely go nowhere because producing teachers at the elementary level is a relatively inexpensive undertaking compared with producing high school teachers. That’s because there is no need to invest in laboratories and equipment, as in producing science, technology, and engineering teachers, as well as vocational teachers.

It’s highly unlikely that the birth rate in South Korea will soon increase. The number of newborn babies this year is estimated to be 360,000, down from 400,000 last year, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Statistics Korea. That means elementary school teacher candidates can only hope increasing numbers of veteran teachers will take early retirement. But with the cost of living showing no signs of abating, that’s unlikely to happen.

The only glimmer of hope is to reduce student-teacher ratios, creating an immediate need for more elementary school teachers. It’s here that the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, can play a role. By presenting evidence showing the benefits of small class size and student learning, the union has an opportunity to gain public support for hiring more new teachers.

Walt Gardner writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week in the U.S. Write to walt.gard376@gmail.com.