Delicious lunchee today π₯°
The decreasing population in South Korea is reflected in the lower number of elementary students. Soon elementary schools will cease to exist.
We are seeing the decrease in students in real-time, sadly.
Grade Year 2025 Year 2026
3 72 59
4 74 71
5 68 75
6 78 65
Currently Grades 1 and 2 have two classes only, with 20 students in each class.
When I first came to my school 8years ago, there were 4 classes of each grade and every class had about 28 or 29 students.
The decrease impacts every industry that touches education - hagwons, teachers, textbook publishing, school supplies (pencils, pens bookbags, school uniforms, school slippers, etc), cafeteria food and all the ingredients from farmers and food companies, drinks and juices, snacks.
Classes Year 2025 Year 2026
3-1 24 21
3-2 24 19
3-3 24 19
4-1 25 24
4-2 24 23
4-3 25 24
5-1 23 25
5-2 23 25
5-3 22 25
6-1 20 21
6-2 19 22
6-3 20 22
6-4 19 No class/not enough students
I saw this when researching for the career section of my grade 5 lesson this week.
Korea's high-wage occupations include management, surgeons, judges, and pilots. Other profitable fields include various engineering and technical positions such as dentistry, ophthalmology, law, software, and nuclear engineering.
the highest-paid jobs