Dropouts at universities of education hit record high for 2nd year
With teachers’ authority declining and working conditions worsening, many educators in Korea are now seen as part of the "service industry," expected to tolerate unreasonable demands and frequent parental complaints. Reflecting this growing disillusionment, dropout rates at Korea’s universities of education have reached record highs for the second consecutive year. According to data from the Korean Educational Development Institute, Sunday, the dropout rate among students at Korea’s education universities stood at 4.2 percent in 2024 — matching the previous year’s figure and marking a record high for the second year in a row. Until 2018, dropout rates at education universities remained below 1 percent annually. However, the rate began to increase steadily, rising to 1.5 percent in 2019, 1.7 percent in 2020, 2.4 percent in 2021 and 3.2 percent in 2022. The figure then surged to the 4 percent range in 2023 and 2024, nearing that of general universities, where dropout rates reached 5.3 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. Not even leading universities of education have been imm
Oct 12, 2025By Jung Da-hyun
