[Editorial] An unhealthy obsession with school subsidies

The wave of school closures in rural areas from dwindling birthrates has spread to Seoul. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education made official the closure of Seoul Hwayang Elementary School in Gwangjin-gu, west of Seoul. The 62 students attending the 40-year-old school must move to other nearby schools from the new school year in March.

It would make the fourth school to disappear since Hongil Elementary School was the first to disappear through a merger in 2015. Dobong High School next year will become the first high school to shutter. In Daegu city, 10 schools have closed down since 2012.

The country’s notoriously low birthrate has first knocked down schools in rural areas, and the domino effect has reached urban and capital regions. First-graders in Seoul this year fell below 60,000 for the first time. The fertility rate in 2016, the year this year’s first-graders are born, was 1.17. By 2018, the rate fell to 0.98. According to the census report by Statistics Korea, school-age population that numbered 7.88 million 2020 dropped to 7.48 million in 2022. The number is expected to decline by 2 million over the next 10 years.

The phenomenon has huge consequences. The first concern is the excess in coffers at local education offices. Of government tax revenue, 20.79 percent is automatically used as education budget. The budget has bulged despite the thinning student count due to the rise in tax revenue from economic growth. Thanks to an overwhelming surplus, education offices have been spending extravagantly under the Covid-19 cause and others. The incumbent government came up with the idea of using some of the surplus to fund local universities and higher or lifetime education. It only got half of the budget due to strong opposition from education superintendents. The budget sharing was difficult because city and provincial education offices are in charge of elementary and secondary schools while higher education falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education.

The pension for teachers is another issue. Teachers and faculties who lose jobs even in their 30s due to school closure can receive lifetime pension. Due to an increasing number of universities closing down, pension beneficiaries have surged to 336 from 46 in 2017.

School closures affect the community economy. It is why some closures are delayed due to opposition by residents. But in new towns, schools are short. School establishment criteria must be adjusted to meet the reality.

Education offices should not be obsessed with defending their budget. They must work with the education ministry to draw up a long-term plan to reflect the demographic change to minimize the side effects.