Fewer students back to school
Spring is the season of rebirth, which often comes with hopeful expectations that something positive will take place in the coming days. This time of the year represents new beginnings and changes. A good example is the start of the school year. Schools start a new semester in spring in Korea, and students return to classes after a long winter break. Some are taking their first step toward the bigger world, and they are mostly first graders.
My youngest boy recently started his first year of school after kindergarten. Feeling highly agitated about stepping into the classroom for the first time, I still vividly remember how he repeatedly went to the bathroom before leaving home.
Aside from his nervous behavior, I have been struck with the less ordinary scene presented on the first day of school. Very few students have enrolled in schools! Presumably, only three-quarters of students attended the entrance ceremony compared to the number of students when my first child entered school three years ago.
The sharp drop in the number of students entering schools this year caused by population decline has long been reported in numerous media outlets. Because many children reside in my neighborhood, where several elementary and secondary schools are closely located, I have foolishly believed that my town is somewhat immune to the threat of declining population. But it turned out that my community is also experiencing this ever-worsening depopulation crisis, which many towns in Korea are collectively experiencing right at this moment. My firsthand experience with the decrease in the number of pupils directly taught me that population reduction is not an issue in the distant future, but it is an immediate threat that we are facing today.
The population drop will likely be exacerbated in the years to come. The newly released report from Statistics Korea shows that the fertility rate of Korea women fell to 0.72 in 2023 from 0.78 recorded in the previous year. As that figure further went down in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 0.65, some are cautiously predicting that the figure will go down to 0.6 this year. I am wary of how the plummeting population would severely undermine the society, economy and entire nation for the coming generations.
The impression I obtained this spring does not match the classic images of spring, which are mostly positive things, such as buds sprouting, flower blossoms, and schools filled with vibrant students.
A calm school playground filled with few newly enrolled students and their relatively spacious classrooms owing to the decrease in the number of classmates is the new scene I witnessed at the beginning of March. It was certainly not the pleasant image I had expected before. Instead, the unusual scene on the school opening day served as a reminder of the country’s falling birthrate. Sadly, things may grow only worse in the years ahead.