With the school-age population declining, a total of 153 schools have been consolidated or closed over the past five years.
According to data on elementary, middle, and high school consolidations received by People Power Party lawmaker Park Seong-hun's office from the Ministry of Education on the 17th, the number of schools closed due to consolidations from 2021 to 2025 was 153 in total, including 120 elementary schools, 24 middle schools, and 9 high schools.
This is the result of schools being consolidated as the number of students fell due to low birthrates. The number of elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide fell from 5,323,075 in 2021 to 5,015,310 last year, a drop of nearly 310,000.
By region, Jeonnam and Gangwon each had 26 schools consolidated or closed, the most. They were followed by Jeonbuk with 21, Chungnam with 17, Gyeongbuk with 16, Gyeonggi with 15, and Gyeongnam with 9.
By year, 41 elementary schools nationwide closed last year alone. In the same year, 7 middle schools and 6 high schools also shut down.
Park said, "There are aspects that make school consolidations unavoidable due to the decline in the school-age population, but once a school site is abolished, it is difficult to return it to an education site, so careful decisions are needed," adding, "In the long term, it is more important to prepare fundamental measures to break the trend of population decline."