Applicants for a state-run teacher employment examination enter a test site in Seoul on Nov. 21, 2020. (Yonhap)
SUWON, March 10 (Korea Bizwire) — With a drop in the school-age population, more teachers are being put on standby even after passing the teacher certification examination.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education said that 47 people passed the teacher employment exam for kindergartens in the Gyeonggi area this year.
However, none of them were assigned to kindergartens last month prior to the start of the new school year.
Only eight teachers were assigned to kindergartens, all of whom passed the employment exam in 2022.
Last year, 100 people passed the teacher certification test. Only 51 of them, however, were assigned to a school.
The decreasing number of children attending kindergarten is leading a downsizing of the educational staff. Only a few kindergartens have newly opened, resulting in a higher number of teachers on standby.
This year, there were 297,000 children between ages of 3 and 5 in the Gyeonggi region, down by close to 30,000 from the previous year. As a result, there are more kindergartens going out of business.
Teachers who have passed the exam for elementary schools are facing a similar situation.
This year, only 479 out of 604 newly accepted teachers in the Gyeonggi area were assigned to a school, accounting for no more than 33.1 percent of all incoming teachers.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
