Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

Ratio of students to teachers to quickly fall
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2902929

March 31, 2009
Korea still has a very high student-per-teacher ratio for its economic size, but within a decade it will have to worry about downsizing its teaching workforce to cope with the dwindling number of children, according to the National Statistical Office yesterday.

The NSO finding came with a suggestion that the focus of the nation�s education policy shift from quantity to quality.

Data from the statistics agency showed that in 2006, Korea had the second-highest number of students per teacher among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in both elementary and middle schools, after Mexico.

Teachers were in charge of an average 26.7 students and 20.8 students each at elementary and middle schools, respectively, both 1.6 times the OECD average. The 2006 OECD average was 16.2 and 13.3, for each level. For high school (15.9), Korea was 1.3 times higher than the average.

Things, however, are set to change quickly due to the ongoing shift in the country�s school-age demographics, the NSO said.

It said Korea�s student-teacher ratio will drop to the OECD average in three to nine years.

It estimates that the school-age population - aged six to 21 - will fall to below 60 percent of the 2007 level by 2030 in Korea.

Based on this information, the NSO said elementary schools will be the first to reach a level on par with advanced countries, with the number of students per teacher reaching the OECD average in 2012. Middle schools will follow in 2015, then high schools in 2018.

By 2018, there will be more teachers than the number needed to maintain the OECD average student-teacher ratio, the NSO said - 136 percent for middle school and 132 percent for elementary school.

�Given the trend, the concern over the lack of teachers will dissipate quickly,� said Chun Baek-keun, an NSO manager. �Enhancing the quality of education instead of increasing the number of schools or teachers will be better education policies.�


By Moon Gwang-lip [[email protected]]

[call_the_shots]

[Robot_Teacher]

Just averages. Some of my elementary classes are as large as 35 students while other classes are 15 to 20 and at another school, each class or grade is only 6 to 9 students. I noticed 2 things. The younger grades have much fewer members than 6th grade elementary and middle school and you have many more boys than girls.

[cruisemonkey]

The smallest class I have has 35 students, the largest 38.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[semi-fly]

As silly as this may sound, but shouldn't they limit class enrollment? Has anyone had similar class enrollment in a hagwon or is it strictly a public school phenomenon?

[nomad-ish]

at my school, the smallest class has 40 students and the largest, 45.