17 high schools to reduce one class each due to a drop in new students

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said 17 high schools in Seoul will reduce one class each starting in 2019 due to a rapid decrease in students.

Seven public boarding high schools and 10 private high schools will cut one freshman class each because the 17 schools had less than 22 students per class, according to a report by SMOE. The standard set by SMOE in 2018 is 27 students per class. 

Fifteen other schools did not reach the standard but SMOE felt that reducing a class each would negatively affect school operations as some schools already had few classes.

SMOE has been cutting classes due to the decrease in students since 2010.

There are currently 259,977 high school students, which is 30 percent less than the around 367,000 students that entered high school in 2009

The number of high school classes fell to 9,687 in 2018 from 10,577 in 2009, an 8.4 percent decrease.

SMOE predicts that the number of high school students will fall to 215,300 by 2022.

By Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@heraldcorp.com)