7850 Absent from Seoul Public Elementary School Preliminary Assembly... "All Locations to Be Confirmed"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 16th that 7,850 children were absent from the preliminary orientation for new students held at public elementary schools on the 4th and 5th.

This year, the number of children eligible to enter elementary school in Seoul is 66,324. Among them, excluding those admitted to national elementary schools (2 schools) and private elementary schools (38 schools), the number of admission notifications sent to public elementary schools (564 schools) is 61,554. Of these, 53,704 attended the preliminary orientation, while the remaining 7,850 were absent. This number is somewhat lower compared to 9,910 in 2021 and 8,878 in 2022.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education estimated that absentees might have deferred enrollment due to personal reasons, gone abroad, attended unauthorized alternative schools, or been homeschooled.

To ensure the safety of absent children, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education plans to identify the whereabouts of all absentees. They will check the Administrative Information Joint Use Network, coordinate with community centers to visit homes, request police cooperation, and work with related agencies to thoroughly verify the status of absent children.

Meanwhile, the final number of students expected to enroll, including 918 additional applicants, is 54,622. This is about 5,000 fewer than last year's 59,335.

Additional admissions include cases such as foreigners who are not subject to admission notifications but wish to enroll, or those who were absent from the preliminary orientation but later expressed their intention to enroll.

This year’s preliminary orientation attendance rate (attendees/admission notifications) was 87.2%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points compared to the previous year.

Among the new students who attended the preliminary orientation, 51,269 (95.5%) participated in person, and 2,435 (4.5%) attended remotely. Due to the decreasing trend in COVID-19 cases, the in-person attendance rate increased compared to last year (in-person 82.6%, remote 17.4%).