On the 5th, it was tallied that the number of 10th graders who entered general high schools with 300 or more students surpassed 100,000. That is an increase of more than 30% from last year.
On this day, Jongno Academy analyzed the number of 10th graders at 1,700 general high schools nationwide disclosed on School Info, and found that 107,080 students entered general high schools with 300 or more students. That is up 30.6% from last year (82,017). During the same period, the number of students who entered general high schools with 200 or fewer students fell 2.3% from 250,154 to 244,455.
Among all 10th graders, the share who entered schools with 300 or more students is 30.5%. That is up 5.8 percentage points from last year. The share entering general high schools with 200 or fewer students is 69.5%, down 5.8 percentage points over the same period.
This trend is seen as the result of the high school grade system changing from nine tiers to five, which makes it relatively easier to earn strong grades at schools with larger student bodies. At a school with 100 students, a student must rank within the top 10 to receive the top grade, but at a school with 300 students, being within the top 30 suffices. Under the nine-tier system, the top grade covered the top 4%.
Im Seong-ho, head of Jongno Academy, said, "With growing preference for large high schools, schools in areas with many students inevitably produce many top-ranked students in school grades."