[Extinction]② Area of 625 Soccer Fields... The Economic Waste of Closed Schools Abandoned for an Average of 20 Years

367 Unused Closed Schools, Left Abandoned for an Average of 20 Years
Jeonnam Tops the List with 75 Closed Schools
Followed by Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk, and Gangwon

Editor's Note
"It takes a village to raise a child." This is a well-known Nigerian proverb. However, the sentence also makes sense if you reverse its structure: To sustain a village, you need children. This is the reality facing villages in Korea today. Villages that do not raise children are paying the price. As people leave, these places become underdeveloped, dark, and fall into silence. We aim to directly examine how abandoned schools affect their local communities.

As the school-age population declines, the pace at which schools disappear is accelerating, but the government has yet to find ways to utilize the remaining land. In South Korea, three out of every ten closed schools that have not been sold are left abandoned without any specific purpose.

The photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article. Getty Images Bank

According to the Local Education Finance Information System, a property inquiry site for educational local governments, as of March last year, there were a total of 367 unused closed schools nationwide. Of the 1,346 closed schools that have not been sold, about 27.3% are unused?neither leased nor repurposed. The area of unused closed school sites amounts to 4.46 km². This means that land equivalent to about 625 soccer fields (7,140 m² each) is lying idle and unused.

Jeonnam had the highest number of unused closed schools, with 75. The area left abandoned there was also the largest, at 883,918 m². This was followed by Gyeongnam with 72 unused closed schools (582,300 m²), Gyeongbuk with 57 (732,617 m²), Gangwon with 56 (874,358 m²), and Chungbuk with 29 (341,916 m²).

In South Korea, it is common for closed schools to be left abandoned for decades. The survey found that the 367 unused closed schools have, on average, remained without a repurposing plan for about 20 years. The school that has been abandoned the longest is Jeju Sindo Elementary School Bohung Branch, which was closed in 1983 and has been unused for 42 years. In addition, there are a total of 204 closed schools that have not found a new use for more than 20 years. By region: Gyeongnam 52, Jeonnam 38, Gangwon 28, Gyeongbuk 22, Chungbuk 20, Jeju 12, Gyeonggi 11, Chungnam 7, Jeonbuk 6, Incheon 4, Daejeon 2, and Ulsan 2.

Unused closed schools are not only found deep in the mountains. Even those near city centers have not found suitable ways to be utilized. As of March last year, there were 20 unused closed schools in metropolitan cities and special cities. The combined area of these sites is 233,814 m².

Six closed schools in Seoul have found some temporary uses, but are officially classified as "unused closed schools." The total area they occupy is 85,057 m². Although the area is not large, the land value is high due to the urban location. The combined value of the six closed school sites is about 176.95 billion won, which is roughly half of the total value of all 367 closed school sites, estimated at about 372.22 billion won.

The price of the closed site of Deoksu High School in Seoul is 66.35 billion won, Seongsu Technical High School is 39.48 billion won, and Dobong High School is 23.19 billion won. Although not in Seoul, the site of Daedong Elementary School in Daejeon is also valued at 15.48 billion won. An official from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education explained, "The reason closed schools in Seoul are marked as 'unused' on the Local Education Finance Information System is because their future use has not been fully decided."

The clock at Seongsu Technical High School, which was closed in 2024, has stopped. Photo by Yoon Dongju

Experts point out that abandoned closed schools accelerate the decline of local communities. Bae Sanghoon, professor of education at Sungkyunkwan University, said, "Unused closed schools are part of the ongoing process of local extinction," and added, "In the future, local extinction will become a major issue in Korean society. It is time for local government leaders to seriously consider how to utilize closed schools."