"Get 2 Million Won Just for Enrollment"... Elementary School Escapes 'Zero New Students' Crisis

Sharp Decline in School-Age Population Due to Low Birth Rate
No New Students Assigned
Five New Students Recruited Through Scholarships and Various Benefits

Local elementary schools facing the brink of closure due to a declining school-age population have attracted attention by successfully recruiting new students through unconventional methods.

According to the education sector on the 16th, Buk-i Elementary School in Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, awarded scholarships of 2 million won each to five new students as an admission fee at the 2025 school year entrance ceremony earlier this month.

Buk-i Elementary originally had no new student assignments for the 2025 school year. The school formed a task force team to find ways to attract new students. Upon learning of the situation, the alumni association raised 10 million won and donated it to the school as scholarships. Park Jemin, vice principal of Buk-i Elementary, said, “When we heard there were no new students, alumni helped little by little.”

The principal and staff personally visited apartment complexes in the Jangseong area to promote the school. As a result, the number of new students for the 2025 school year increased from zero to five. All five students reside in Jangseong-eup and will commute to school.

On the 4th, a first-grade new student who completed the entrance ceremony at an elementary school in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, is moving to the classroom. This school has one new student this year. Photo by Yonhap News

In addition to scholarships, Buk-i Elementary offered various benefits. These include ▲providing inline skates ▲free educational activities ▲evening care until 7 p.m. ▲a health sports master program, among other offerings presented by the school. They also promoted that admission or transfer is possible without changing one’s address.

Buk-i Elementary is also providing 200,000 won as an admission congratulatory gift to students entering the attached kindergarten. Students who attend for six years receive 300,000 won each as a graduation congratulatory gift upon graduation.

Meanwhile, with the recent sharp decline in birth rates leading to a rapid decrease in the school-age population, schools with histories exceeding 100 years are also facing crises. On the 4th, Gwangju Dong-gu Jungang Elementary School made headlines with a ‘one-student entrance ceremony’ as only one student enrolled.

According to the status of school closures nationwide submitted by the Ministry of Education to Jin Sun-mi, a member of the National Assembly’s Education Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 23rd of last month, 49 elementary, middle, and high schools are scheduled to close this year across 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education. The number of school closures, which totaled 33 in 2020, decreased to 24 in 2021, 25 in 2022, and 22 in 2023, before sharply rising again to 33 last year.