[Extinction] ①Abandoned Closed Schools Cast a Shadow Over the Village

Report on Six Closed Schools in Seoul
Signs of Slumification Amid Neglect
"When the Children Disappear... People and Villages Disappear Too"

Editor's Note"It takes a village to raise a child." This is a famous Nigerian proverb. However, the reverse is also true: to sustain a village, you need children. This is the reality facing villages across Korea today. Communities that do not raise children are paying the price. As people stop coming, these areas become neglected, dark, and fall into silence. We intend to directly examine the impact that abandoned closed schools have on their local communities.

On April 1, shortly after the new semester began for elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide, I visited a five-story elementary school located in Hwayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. At 8:50 a.m., the area in front of the school was quiet. There were no students or parents to be seen on the street. Only an elderly man occasionally came out to smoke and loitered around the school building. The clock attached to the school building had also stopped at 3:50. This is the scene at Hwayang Elementary School, which was closed in 2023, and its surrounding area.

The appearance of Hwayang Elementary School, which was closed in 2023. Some areas are being used as parking lots, but due to the low number of visitors, the place has lost its vitality. Photo by Dongju Yoon

Park Changok (73, male), who has run a hardware store in Hwayang-dong for 40 years, witnessed the rise and fall of Hwayang Elementary. He recalls that 20 years ago, the school and the surrounding neighborhood were bustling with students. However, the number of students at Hwayang Elementary gradually began to decline. The student population, which was 420 in 2008, plummeted to 84 in 2022, eventually leading to the school's closure.

"When the children disappeared, so did the parents, the teachers, the snack shops, and even the rice cake shop that supplied goods to the snack shops. Now, not a single person comes into my hardware store,"

Pointing to an empty alley where no one passes by, Park said that a shadow has fallen over what was once a lively neighborhood.

In the past, closed schools could only be found in remote rural areas. But now, even in the heart of cities like Seoul, school closures are becoming increasingly common. In addition to Gongjin Middle School and Yeomgang Elementary School in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, which closed in 2020, there are now six closed schools in Seoul, including Hwayang Elementary in 2023, and Deoksu High School, Seongsu High School in Seongdong-gu, and Dobong High School in Dobong-gu last year.

How are these closed school sites in Seoul being utilized? Each school is currently being used according to temporary measures, but the term "abandoned" seems more appropriate than "utilized," as they are not fulfilling any meaningful role.

According to the Special Act on the Promotion of Utilization of Closed School Properties, the use of closed school sites should contribute to the development of the local community. However, after visiting and analyzing the six closed school sites over the past two months since March, it was found that abandoned schools are leading to the slumification of nearby areas. As students disappear, the villages themselves are now at risk of vanishing.

Schools used only as parking lots... Abandonment leads directly to slumification

The clock at Hwayang Elementary School, which was closed in 2023, has stopped. Photo by Dongju Yoon

The closed Hwayang Elementary School site is currently used as a walking and parking space for residents. However, few people visit. Even during a previous visit on March 18, only two elderly people were walking along the track in the playground, and it was difficult to see anyone else.

Local residents explained that the abandonment of the closed school is causing signs of slumification in the surrounding area. Although the number of students and parents was already declining, they pointed out that the pace of slumification has accelerated since the school closed. Park Eungseok (82, male), who has lived near Hwayang Elementary for 37 years, said, "It's not just the children who have disappeared; the adults who earn and spend money have also moved away. Even my own children have left and settled in Gireum-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul." At a meeting of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Education Committee on February 27 last year, council member Kim Hyeyoung pointed out to Um Donghwan, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's Education Administration Bureau, that "management staff need to be assigned due to issues such as trash, noise pollution, loud singing, and youth smoking in the (Hwayang Elementary) playground."

Statistics clearly show that the area around Hwayang Elementary is declining. From 2020 to 2022, the total population of Hwayang-dong increased each year and the proportion of elderly residents aged 65 and over decreased. However, after the closure of Hwayang Elementary in 2023, the trend reversed. Last year, the population of Hwayang-dong was 22,880, a decrease of 313 from the previous year, and the proportion of elderly residents rose by 0.39 percentage points to about 10.69%. Hwayang-dong has become a place where business closures are more common than openings. According to the Seoul Commercial District Analysis Service, the number of new businesses in Hwayang-dong last year was 351, fewer than the 394 closures. This contrasts with 2022 (373 openings, 287 closures) and 2023 (407 openings, 342 closures), when the number of new businesses was higher than closures.

Areas near closed schools shrouded in silence..."It's scary to walk around at night"

The area near the closed Deoksu High School site in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, visited on April 9. People are rarely seen here. Photo by Byungseon Gong

The area near the closed Deoksu High School site is showing similar signs of slumification. Although Seoul Online School and the alternative Odyssey School's Innovation Park campus have moved in, these are not enough to revitalize the area. The main consumers in the Deoksu High School commercial district were high school students. The online school that replaced Deoksu High has no students due to the nature of the institution. As of last year, the Odyssey School Innovation Park had only 14 students. Local residents lamented that the neighborhood has fallen into silence since the high school students disappeared along with the school closure. The convenience store next to the closed school site closes as soon as it gets dark because there are so few people passing by.

Lee (70, female), who has run a snack shop near Deoksu High School for 15 years, recalled that until 2019, students would come out for a quick break during evening self-study to buy toast. But now, she says, there are no people and she can no longer keep her business open. Lee said, "It's not just that people are gone. The old houses, empty stores, and dark alleys make it scary to walk around at night. I'm angry at the education authorities for deciding to close the school," she said.

In 2024, the playground of Seongsu Technical High School, which was closed, is overgrown with weeds. Photo by Yoon Dongju

Seongsu Technical High School's closed site is scheduled to become Seongjin School, a special needs school, in 2029. Until the new school is built, the Seoul Education Office Union plans to use the space as an office. However, in reality, the space is effectively abandoned. During two visits on March 12 and April 9, only a single white car was parked inside the school, and no one was seen entering or leaving the building. The streets around the closed school were equally quiet.

The general perception is that Seongsu-dong is far removed from slumification due to its unique characteristics. The area, once a declining industrial zone, has transformed into a "hot place" as artists have moved in. Above the closed Seongsu Technical High School site is the Seongsu-dong cafe street, a popular spot for tourists. There are five schools in the vicinity, including Gyeongdong Elementary School, and a 20-minute walk to the left leads to Seoul Forest. However, below the closed school, it was difficult to find people or lively businesses. In fact, stores across from the closed school had "For Lease" banners on their doors. Local residents say that, regardless of the area's designation as a redevelopment zone, the area below the Seongsu Technical High School site has not revived like other "hot places."

Kim Jongil (58, male), who has lived near Seongsu Technical High School for 30 years, emphasized that after the school closed, opportunities for neighbors to meet have decreased. He said, "The school gates are completely locked. When there were at least a few students, we used to have early morning soccer matches at Seongsu Technical High, and residents could go in to play badminton. Now that entry is completely restricted, there is no one around the school at all," he said.

Closed schools accelerate slumification...Increasing elderly population, declining new businesses

Yeomgang Elementary in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, is officially classified as "unused," but is currently being used as a temporary alternative school for North Korean defector youth, Yeomyung School. Nearby Gongjin Middle School is under construction to become an environmental education experience center. The areas around both schools have not shown signs of slumification. This is because there are still many schools and apartment complexes in Gayang 3-dong, where Yeomgang Elementary is located, and in Gayang 2-dong, where Gongjin Middle is located. During school dismissal, it is common to see parents coming to pick up their children.

However, there are signs that the area's vitality is fading. The development of Magok District, adjacent to Gayang 2-dong and Gayang 3-dong, is drawing away the population. In 2018, the combined population of Gayang 2-dong and Gayang 3-dong was 32,073, but by last year it had fallen to 26,898. The proportion of elderly residents nearly doubled from 16.8% to 32.9% over the same period. This is a different trend from Gayang 1-dong, which is part of the Magok District. In 2018, Gayang 1-dong had a total population of 33,189 and an elderly population ratio of 7.81%. Last year, these figures were 33,659 and 11.4%, respectively. While the elderly ratio increased slightly, the total population also grew.

The commercial district has also been affected. In 2022, the number of business openings and closures in Gayang 2-dong and Gayang 3-dong was 90 and 88, respectively, but last year, there were only 67 openings compared to 91 closures, reversing the trend. In contrast, Gayang 1-dong had more openings than closures last year, with 772 openings and 771 closures.

Children's laughter prevents the 'broken windows' effect

On March 20th at around 3 PM, elementary school students were leaving school after classes at the closed Dobong High School site in Dobong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Gong Byungseon

What about places where closed school sites were not left abandoned? The building of Dobong High School, which was closed last year, has been temporarily occupied by Dobong Elementary School and Dosol School, a special needs school, since this year. Although they are expected to stay only two to four years, the neighborhood is lively. At 3 p.m. on March 20, elementary school students came running out of the Dobong High School building, laughing. Parents holding coffee in one hand slung their children's backpacks over their shoulders and walked home together. Students waved goodbye to the school security guard, saying, "See you tomorrow," as they held their mothers' hands.

Park Seungki (70, male), who has run a mill near the Dobong High School site for 40 years, said that having students around definitely brings life to the neighborhood. He said, "It's much better to have children coming and going than to have an empty building sitting in the middle of the village. Elementary students may not contribute much to the local economy, but the sound of children's laughter brings energy to the residents," he said.