On March 4th, first-grade students completed their entrance ceremony for the 2025 academic year at Gyodong Elementary School in Ganghwa County, Incheon. According to count reports, the number of students in Seoul’s kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools this year decreased by nearly 3% compared to last year. The most significant decline was observed in elementary schools, with 20,000 fewer students compared to the previous year. This drop is the largest in the past six years, likely influenced by the recent sharp decline in birth rates since the late 2010s.
On the 15th, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced class organization results for 2,115 institutions across kindergartens, elementary, middle, high schools, special schools, and various other schools for the 2025 academic year. The data reference point was last month’s 10th.
The total number of students for the 2025 academic year is 812,207, a decrease of 22,863 (2.7%) from the previous year, which had 835,070 students. Specifically, the number of elementary, middle, and high school students is 745,815, down by 20,391 (2.7%) from the previous year. The decline in elementary school numbers was particularly noticeable, decreasing by 20,908 (5.8%) to 342,249 students. High schools counted 203,454 students, a reduction of 3,857 from the previous year. In contrast, middle school numbers increased by 4,374 (2.2%) to 200,112 students, due to the entry of “Baekho Ddi” students (born in 2010, currently Grade 3) and “Heukryong Ddi” students (born in 2012, currently Grade 1).
The total number of schools decreased by four to 2,115 schools, excluding kindergartens that remained unchanged at 1,349. Due to low birth rates, total kindergartens decreased by five (0.7%) to 749, while public kindergartens increased by three due to the city education office’s expansion policy. The number of various schools increased by one due to the full introduction of the high school credit system, resulting in the establishment of an online school.
Although the number of classes decreased, the number of students per class remained the same as the previous year. The total number of classes across all schools was 38,063, a decrease of 1,016 (2.6%) from 39,079 the previous year. However, with the number of students also decreasing, the average number of students per class remained at 23.3, the same as the previous year. The average number of students per class in elementary schools decreased by 0.5 (2.3%) to 21.4, whereas in middle schools, it increased by 1.2 (4.8%) to 26.0, and in high schools, it increased by 0.2 (0.8%) to 24.7. The increase in middle school class sizes was attributed to staff reductions necessitating a reduction in the number of classes.
An official from the city education office stated, “We plan to continuously work on improving educational conditions considering student population trends, regional and school conditions, appropriate class size management, reduction of students per class, and fostering schools with appropriate size.”