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Kids studying abroad down for second year

Published: 05 Nov. 2009, 22:12

With a growing number of parents tightening their wallets during the economic downturn, the number of students studying overseas has gone down for two years in a row for the first time since the Education Ministry began tracking the numbers in 1998, the ministry said yesterday.

The ministry’s report showed 27,349 elementary, middle and high school students left Korea for overseas education between March 2008 and February 2009, 319 fewer than the year before.

The ministry’s figures do not include 4,788 students who moved to foreign countries with their parents or 8,824 students who left the country to live with their parents who were assigned to overseas work.

The total number of outbound elementary, middle and high school students fell to 40,961 this year from 43,415 last year.

Of the total, 13,156 went to the United States, 7,973 to Southeast Asian countries, 5,415 to China, 5,172 to Canada, 2,046 to Australia and 1,636 to New Zealand, the report said.

“The decline in the number of students studying abroad is primarily due to the economic downturn but another cause could be a letdown in parents’ enthusiasm to send their children overseas after they heard about the shortcomings of early overseas education from neighbors who have sent their children abroad,” an official at the Education Ministry said.

By Lee Won-jean, Kim Mi-ju [[email protected]]