No. of new elementary teachers in Seoul hits record low amid declining birthrate

A teacher guides a child who is due to enter elementary school in March, during an orientation event at an elementary school in southern Seoul's Seocho District, Jan. 4. Yonhap

The number of newly recruited teachers for public elementary schools in Seoul this year hit a fresh low of 110 amid the nation's rapidly declining birthrate, according to data from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Friday.

The education office said a total of 156 individuals have successfully passed the recruitment exam for the 2024 academic year for working at public kindergarten, elementary and special needs schools across Seoul.

Among them, 110 were elementary school teachers, marking the lowest amount since the education office began announcing successful candidates in 2008.

The figure has been declining consistently in recent years, with 366 successful candidates in 2020, 303 in 2021, 216 in 2022 and 114 in 2023.

The reduction in the hiring of elementary school teachers was also attributed to the Ministry of Education's policy of downsizing the public school workforce gradually to respond to a sharp decline in the population of school-age children.

Last April, the education ministry unveiled a teacher employment plan covering the period from 2024 to 2027, which included a gradual reduction in the new recruitment of public elementary school teachers nationwide. The goal was to reduce the number of new teachers to a range of 2,600 to 2,900 teachers by 2027, representing a cut of up to 27 percent from the 3,561 teachers hired in 2023.

According to the Korea Educational Development Institute, the total number of elementary, middle and high school students nationwide is expected to decrease by 17 percent over the next five years, from around 5.13 million this year to 4.27 million in 2029.

Even the densely populated capital is not exempt from this trend.

As of 2023, the number of students in Seoul's elementary, middle and high schools totaled 857,223, marking a 10 percent decrease compared to the 951,965 students in 2019.