ID :
188693
Wed, 06/15/2011 - 09:18
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/188693
The shortlink copeid
Number of young students on the steady decline: report
SEOUL, June 15 (Yonhap) -- Affected by South Korea's declining birthrate, the number of elementary, middle and high school students will go down significantly over the next decade, a report showed Wednesday.
The number of elementary school students, now standing at 3,122,000, is projected to drop to 2,931,000 next year, sinking below 3 million for the first time since record keeping began in 1965, according to the research paper conducted at the request of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
The figure is expected to steadily decline by 16.9 percent to 2,593,000 in 2020, the report said.
The downward trend will be more apparent among middle and high school students, it said, forecasting their combined number will dip about 30 percent from 3,805,000 this year to 2,644,000 in 2020.
The main culprit is the country's low birthrate. On average, a South Korean woman has 1.2 babies in her lifetime, according to 2010 statistics, which is below the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at 1.71.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
The number of elementary school students, now standing at 3,122,000, is projected to drop to 2,931,000 next year, sinking below 3 million for the first time since record keeping began in 1965, according to the research paper conducted at the request of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
The figure is expected to steadily decline by 16.9 percent to 2,593,000 in 2020, the report said.
The downward trend will be more apparent among middle and high school students, it said, forecasting their combined number will dip about 30 percent from 3,805,000 this year to 2,644,000 in 2020.
The main culprit is the country's low birthrate. On average, a South Korean woman has 1.2 babies in her lifetime, according to 2010 statistics, which is below the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at 1.71.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
