Posted on 12/31/2025 12:02:36 AM PST by Morgana
More than 4,000 elementary, middle and high schools across Korea have shut their doors as the country’s student population shrinks, new data shows.
According to the Ministry of Education’s latest figures, revealed on Sunday by Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, since 1980, 4,008 schools under 17 regional education offices nationwide have closed as of March this year. During the period, the number of enrolled students decreased from 9.9 million to 5.07 million.
Elementary schools account for the majority of closures, with 3,674 shut down permanently, compared with 264 middle schools and 70 high schools. Over the past five years alone, 158 schools have closed, and an additional 107 schools are projected to shut down over the next five years.
Korea’s birthrate ― the lowest in the world with the total fertility rate remaining below 0.8 ― is the chief reason behind this contraction. The pace of closures also suggests that enrollment decline is expected to accelerate in provincial regions rather than in the capital area.
The largest number of closures are in North Jeolla Province with 16 schools, followed by South Jeolla Province (15), Gyeonggi Province (12) and South Chungcheong Province (11).
The country’s broader demographic outlook suggests that the contraction will only intensify in the coming years, if not decades. The state‑run Korean Educational Development Institute estimates that the number of elementary, middle and high school students stands at about 5.07 million this year and is projected to decrease to roughly 4.25 million by 2029 — a drop of more than 800,000 pupils in just six years.
The ministry data also reveal serious gaps in how closed school sites are being managed. Of the 4,008 schools that have been shut down, 376 remain unused. Among them, 266 have been left idle for more than a decade, and 82 have sat abandoned for over 30 years.
According to the lawmaker’s office, the figures suggest that follow‑up management and reuse of former school facilities are lagging behind the speed of closures, which raises concerns about wasted public assets.
“A considerable number of schools have already closed, and this will continue as student numbers decline,” Jin said. “We must not stop at simply shutting schools down, but instead develop a long‑term road map to repurpose them as assets for local communities.”
The top Korean RAM producers are operating at half hearted capacity. As in why bother, just charge more for what RAM that we do produce. Similar to production of marriages and babies in South Korea.
I am already juggling and hoarding RAM. ddr4 that is. And a NVMe that i would have returned, I am keeping it.
Does this take into account ghost student enrollment padding...?
Because I’ll bet it doesn’t.
Decades ago I bought extra RAM for when I'd need it later, only for it to be insufficient by the time I needed it.
Self and it is minor. Gamers are most pissed and say the datacenter building craze is moving compute away from individuals, and towards the monster AI datacenters.
The poor make too many children and the better off make too few. Isn’t that true throughout history and across cultures?
Adam was getting busy with Lilith.
Since they aren't spending wasted dollars on education in South Korea, does that mean they can afford nice things?
Check
Since there are fewer schools how about a lowering of my property taxes which fund this often ineffective babysitting service???
That there will be a significant decline in the number of humans globally within the next 10-20 years seems certain.
According to the geologic record, this has happened to humans a couple of times, i.e., that there were only a few individuals clinging to existence after a disaster, who somehow managed to repopulate the earth with humans.
Just like it says in the Bible!! 😄 (Except in the Bible, it happens several times. And it’s because humans are ungrateful pieces of sh1t who turn away from G0d’s law at the drop of a hat, NOT because people can no longer think of a good reason to marry/have kids. Right? Right?)
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