Gwangju Incoming First-Year High School Students Assigned to Distant Schools Decrease for Second Consecutive Year... 667 This Year

The number of incoming first-year high school students in Gwangju assigned to distant schools has decreased for the second consecutive year, dropping to the 600s this year.

On January 22, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education announced the assigned high schools for 11,711 successful applicants to standardized general high schools for the 2026 academic year through the office's website and the NEIS high school admission system.

Students can directly check their assigned high schools by entering their middle school name, date of birth, and name on the office's website.

This allocation was conducted fairly in accordance with the basic plan for high school admissions and the assignment guidelines specified for the 2026 academic year.

For autonomous public high schools and science-focused schools, assignments were made by computerized lottery according to the order of preference. For other general high schools, assignments were made by computerized lottery regardless of preference order. This year’s standardized general high school allocation was conducted exclusively among the schools each student applied to, with no arbitrary (forced) assignments.

The allocation of standardized general high schools in Gwangju has faced challenges due to the geographical imbalance in the distribution of middle and high schools and population overcrowding in certain areas, resulting in students from Gwangsan-gu being assigned to Buk-gu and Seo-gu, and from Buk-gu and Seo-gu to Dong-gu and Nam-gu.

This phenomenon of students being assigned to distant schools has been significantly alleviated over the past three years. The Office of Education has actively worked to resolve these allocation difficulties by changing school types, flexibly applying quotas by district, converting Myeongjin High School to a coeducational institution, and holding intensive briefings to address overcrowded classes.

In Gwangsan-gu, where the number of students assigned to distant schools was the highest, the figure dropped sharply from 1,152 in the 2024 academic year to 739 last year (out of 11,060 successful applicants), and further decreased to 667 this year. In Seo-gu, 191 students were assigned to schools in other districts last year, but this number dropped to 77 this year.

It is expected that when the tentatively named Gwangsan High School opens in March 2027, the phenomenon of students from Gwangsan-gu being assigned to distant schools will be further alleviated.

Superintendent Lee Jeongseon stated, "We will continue to make sustained and focused efforts until the difficulties in standardized general high school allocation are fully resolved, so that students and parents can achieve the high school admissions assignments they hope for."