From Next Year's College Admissions, Reduction of Over 12%
Education Universities, Elementary Education Department 3,847 → 3,390
Teacher Organizations "To Solve Overcrowded Classes, Increase Teachers"
Since 2012, the enrollment quotas for elementary teacher training institutions, including Gyodae and elementary education departments, which had been frozen, will be reduced starting from the 2025 college entrance exam taken by the current high school seniors.
On the 11th, the Ministry of Education announced the '2024 Regular Approval Plan for Education University Quotas (Draft)', which includes a reduction of more than 12% in the enrollment quotas for elementary teacher training institutions.
The adjustment targets include Gyodae and general university elementary education departments, while private universities such as Ewha Womans University (quota of 39) will be allowed to adjust autonomously. Accordingly, the current enrollment quota of 3,847 students (13 universities) for elementary teacher training institutions will be reduced by 457 to 3,390.
However, if necessary, a temporary recruitment suspension quota may be applied to the reduced enrollment quota.
Due to the decline in the school-age population, the scale of new elementary teacher recruitment has continuously decreased since 2014. However, the enrollment quotas for training institutions such as Gyodae have been frozen since 2012.
Recently, the non-registration rate in both early and regular admissions at Gyodae has also increased. According to Jongno Academy on this day, the non-registration rate of first-round successful candidates in the regular admissions for eight Gyodae nationwide for the 2024 academic year was 13.1% (233 people), up from 8.6% two years ago. The early admission unfilled rate for 13 Gyodae nationwide was 30.9% (750 people), an increase from 20.6% (507) last year.
However, teacher organizations oppose the reduction in numbers. The Korea Federation of Teachers' Associations stated in a press release on the same day, "It is necessary to resolve overcrowded elementary classes with more than 20 students per class, and considering policy demands such as strengthening AI (artificial intelligence) and digital education, teacher expansion is needed," adding, "This should be seen as an opportunity to dramatically improve student education conditions through teacher expansion."
The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union also pointed out, "While measures for the declining school-age population are necessary, blindly reducing Gyodae quotas based on economic logic raises concerns about the deterioration of educational publicness."
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