Has the number of math dropouts increased... More than 1 in 3 middle school students score below 60 in math

In the first semester of this year, one out of three middle school students scored below 60 in their math subject grades.

According to the analysis of academic achievement results by subject for the first semester at 3,277 middle schools nationwide, announced by Jongno Academy on the School Information Disclosure website on the 13th, the proportion of students who received an E grade, scoring below 60 in school math grades, was 35.2%. The rates of scoring below 60 were followed by English (29.6%), Science (29.3%), Social Studies (21.9%, including History and Ethics), and Korean (18.0%) in that order.

The region with the highest proportion of E grades in math was Gangwon at 41.8%. This was followed by Gyeongbuk and Chungnam at 40.6% each, while the lowest regions were Ulsan at 24.9%, Seoul at 27.0%, and Busan at 29.2%, respectively.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Among the 3,277 schools, 374 schools, or 11.4%, had more than half of their entire middle school student body receiving E grades in math. This represents a 3.2 percentage point increase compared to last year’s 8.2% (269 out of 3,267 schools).

The proportion of students who received an A grade with scores of 90 or above was analyzed in the order of English (30.4%), Social Studies (27.7%), Korean (26.3%), Math (25.4%), and Science (24.3%). Ulsan showed the highest A grade rates among the five subjects across the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces nationwide.

The average scores by subject for middle school students nationwide in the first semester this year were lowest in math at 68.6 points, followed by science at 71.3 points. In contrast, Korean had the highest average score at 75.8 points.

Jongno Academy explained that based on the proportion of E grades and the distribution of average scores, math is the subject that middle school students find most difficult and, in fact, the subject they most often give up on. Science, which has the second lowest average score after math and the lowest A grade rate, is also considered a subject with significant difficulty and differentiation.

Additionally, from the 2028 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) that the current third-year middle school students will take, all examinees will be required to take both Integrated Social Studies and Integrated Science. Therefore, science is expected to become an important subject among top-ranking students.