South Korea's Empty Classrooms: One New Pupil, Thousands of Closed Schools

A School Year Begins With One Child

Seven-year-old Kang took his seat alone when South Korea's school year began on March 3, 2026. He was the only new first grader at his elementary school in Pyeongchang, a rural county in Gangwon Province. An entrance ceremony usually filled with nervous children and proud parents instead welcomed one child representing an entire grade.

His school has just 18 students. It combines two grades in one classroom and offers camping trips, water sports, skiing excursions and reading marathons to attract families from cities. Seven students arrived this year through Gangwon Province's rural study-abroad program, helping the school maintain five separate classes. A school official said the catchment area might otherwise have had no elementary students at all.

Across Gangwon, 20 elementary schools enrolled no first graders this year, while another 21 held entrance ceremonies for a single child. The province lost 121 elementary classes compared with the previous year.

Nationally, 210 elementary schools had no new students in 2026, up 81% from 116 five years earlier. The empty intake at Kang's school is part of a much wider contraction, reaching from farming villages to Seoul.

South Korea places a high value on education, yet shrinking generations of children are forcing decisions about which schools can stay open, how many teachers to employ and what to do with buildings that communities no longer fill. More than 4,000 elementary, middle and high schools have permanently closed nationwide, according to Ministry of Education figures.

The Numbers Behind the Empty Desks

The national closure total stands at 4,008 schools. Elementary schools account for 3,674, compared with 264 middle schools and 70 high schools. Elementary schools therefore make up about 92% of the total, showing how heavily the contraction has affected the first stage of formal schooling.

During the past five years, 158 schools closed. Another 107 are projected to close within the next five years. Provincial regions are expected to face a faster contraction than the capital area, although Seoul is also losing schools.

North Jeolla Province has the largest projected number of closures, at 16, followed by South Jeolla with 15, Gyeonggi with 12 and South Chungcheong with 11.

Behind those numbers is a prolonged fall in births. South Korea's total fertility rate reached a record low of 0.72 in 2023, before rising slightly to 0.75 in 2024 and 0.8 in 2025. The rate expresses the average number of children a woman would have over her lifetime if the birth patterns measured in that year continued.

A rate of about 2.1 children per woman is needed to maintain a stable population. South Korea has stayed far below that level for years and has the world's lowest fertility rate. The recent increase leaves the country well below the level needed to replace one generation with the next.

Rural Schools Try to Hold On

Gangwon's difficulty extends beyond school gates. Most rural farmers are now elderly, and many villages have few or no children. Schools cannot easily recruit pupils from nearby households when those households no longer include young families.

Provincial authorities have acknowledged that increasing the population of school age is effectively unrealistic. Their response is to seek smaller classes suited to what officials call social needs, with the aim of improving education for the children who remain.

Falling enrollment also brings reductions in teacher quotas and hiring budgets. That makes it harder to use smaller classes as a lasting answer, even when classrooms and school buildings are already available.

The Pyeongchang school's outdoor activities and rural study-abroad places show how schools are trying to attract children from beyond their immediate communities. The seven arrivals this year helped sustain its five classes, while combining grades allowed teaching to continue with only 18 pupils.

Seoul Is Losing Its Protection From Decline

Seoul once benefited from families leaving the countryside for opportunities in the capital. That movement helped protect its schools from the shortages affecting rural districts. The protection is weakening.

A normally operating school in Gangseo District enrolled no first graders this year, the first such case in Seoul outside campuses closed for reconstruction. In Gwangju, Jungang Elementary and Samdo Elementary also had no new pupils, despite each having a history stretching back more than a century.

Since 2015, nine schools in Seoul have closed because of student shortages. Gongjin Middle School in Gangseo District had only 47 students when it closed in 2020. All eight schools covered by the detailed closure figures had fewer than 100 students when they shut.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education projects that the capital will have 127 small schools by 2029, compared with 80 this year, an increase of about 1.6 times. Its definition covers schools with fewer than 100 students and no more than five classes.

Hwayang Elementary in Gwangjin District illustrates how a school can shrink over many years before closing. It opened in 1983 with 18 classes, but its enrollment eventually fell below 100.

• 1983: Hwayang Elementary opened with 18 classes.
• 2008: The school had 420 students.
• 2013: Enrollment fell to 183.
• 2018: Enrollment declined to 151.
• 2023: Only 84 students remained, including seven new first graders.
• February 2024: The school closed.

Hwayang's grounds now serve a different population. Elderly residents, some walking with canes, use the former school for afternoon exercise. Trees and occasional birdsong have replaced the noise of children, and a former playground with swings and slides has become neighborhood parking.

Ryu Myung-jin, 73, lives five minutes away and regularly visits the grounds. She described why the old school remains useful to nearby residents.

Since it is a school, there are a lot of trees. I usually come here after lunch to walk around for exercise," she explained. "The benches and wide stairs make it easy to find a place to sit.

A Closed Campus Becomes a School Again

Yeomgang Elementary, which closed in March 2020, offers another possible future for an empty campus. After remaining idle, it became the new home of Yeomyung School, the first state-accredited school for North Korean defectors.

Churches and advocacy groups established Yeomyung in 2004 to educate young people who had escaped North Korea and resettled in the South. Today, 16 teachers teach 84 students aged 14 to 33 in the former elementary school building.

It is the only known example in Seoul of a closed school being converted into another educational facility. Principal Cho Myung-sook said the playground and outdoor track provide something the school's previous premises could not.

Cho explained that many students had missed schooling and adult support before arriving.

"Students here never had the chance to attend school in the North, and many grew up without proper care from parents or other adults. For them, school is more than just a place to learn. It is a safe space where they feel supported, which helps them adjust to Korean society," she explained.

Cho also described changes she had observed since students gained space to play together.

Back at the old building, the kids did not really have space to run around or play sports together. But here, just being able to play outside has made a big difference. I have seen fewer conflicts between them, and they just seem more emotionally stable. Having a playground gives them a real sense of belonging, which motivates them to learn.

New Uses for Buildings Communities Already Have

Cho argues that closed schools could also serve students with disabilities or those from multicultural backgrounds. Her proposal would preserve the educational purpose of buildings while opening them to groups whose needs may not be met elsewhere.

The principal described that purpose in terms of helping people live together.

The world we live in is made up of all kinds of people, and we do not get to choose who we live next to. Education is really about helping people connect and understand each other. If we can turn forgotten schools into places for students who have been left behind, that is when education truly makes a difference.

Some rural campuses have become cultural or visitor destinations. The Ami Art Museum in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, occupies the former Yudong Elementary School. It opened in 2011 and presents seasonal exhibitions of paintings and installations in collaboration with emerging local artists.

Cafe Owal School, in a mountain village in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, was once Gadeok Branch School, which closed in 1982. The premises now operate as a cafe, restaurant and guesthouse and have become a popular destination for visitors seeking wellness experiences.

These conversions show several ways an old campus can keep serving people after its original pupils disappear. Schools already have buildings, outdoor space and a place in local life. Finding a new use, however, can depend on ownership, planning restrictions and the purpose proposed for the property.

Why Hundreds of Schools Remain Unused

Of South Korea's 4,008 closed schools, 376 remain unused. Among them, 266 have been idle for more than a decade, including 82 unused for over 30 years.

Rules governing public property restrict what can happen next. Schools owned by the state or local governments can be sold or leased to public or private institutions only for public purposes. Permitted uses include education, social welfare, culture, public sports and support for returning farmers or foreign nationals moving to rural areas.

Ordinary businesses operating for profit, such as cafes or lodging establishments, cannot simply rent these publicly owned sites. The existing cafe conversions therefore sit alongside a wider legal framework that limits commercial reuse of public school property.

Ma Kang-rae, a professor of urban planning and real estate at Chung-Ang University, identified further obstacles in Seoul. Floor area ratios control how much total building space a site can contain, while building coverage ratios limit how much ground the buildings can occupy.

Ma said these restrictions, together with government project assessments, can delay redevelopment.

In Seoul, for example, former school sites are subject to restrictions on floor area ratios and building coverage ratios for 10 years after closure. A preliminary feasibility study, a government-led assessment of a project's economic viability and public value, can also take at least two years to complete," said Ma Kang-rae, a professor of urban planning and real estate at Chung-Ang University. "There is a growing need to revise existing regulations and develop more viable approaches to making use of abandoned school facilities.

A Daejeon Campus Shows the Cost of Delay

Chungil Girls' High School in Yuseong District, Daejeon, closed in 2005 and has remained defunct for about two decades. A development group bought the site for residential construction, but the project was suspended because Daejeon Prison stood around 200 meters away, a location considered unattractive to potential home buyers.

The former school now has shattered windows, walls covered with vines and collapsed roof tiles. Its deteriorating classrooms have become filming locations for local YouTubers making horror content.

Officials worry that such sites can contribute to decline in surrounding neighborhoods. An official from the Yuseong District Office described the risks associated with leaving school buildings unused for long periods.

"Abandoned schools that have been left unused for extended periods often become spots for troubled youth or shelters for homeless individuals and even criminals," an official from the Yuseong-gu Office explained.

Taiwan Faces a Similar Squeeze

Taiwan's fertility rate was 0.865 in 2023, also far below the replacement level of 2.1. Between 2011 and 2021, the number of children in its primary and junior high schools fell from 2.3 million to fewer than 1.8 million, a loss of more than 500,000 pupils.

Authorities fear economic difficulties as an expanding elderly population depends on a smaller pool of working taxpayers. Education is already feeling the pressure, with private schools among the first affected.

Dozens of private schools face closure, and 15 colleges and universities have shut since 2014. Four of Taiwan's 103 private universities have been ordered to close, while educators expect another 40 to 50 to follow by 2028.

Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan have tried financial incentives and changes to regulations to encourage births. People continue to cite traditional gender roles, rising living costs and the difficulty of balancing careers as reasons for resisting those efforts.

London's Empty Places Show a Wider Pattern

London's primary schools are also losing children, with classes emptying almost twice as quickly as in any other part of England. Since 2018, primary enrollment in the capital has fallen by 8.1%, equivalent to 2,060 classes.

Across England, primary schools had more than 611,000 empty places last year, enough to fill 23,000 classrooms. The vacancy rate was the highest since records began.

The experiences of South Korea, Taiwan and London connect school planning to wider demographic changes. Urbanization, rising living costs and changing family structures are contributing to birth rates below the level needed to maintain population size in developed countries.

For education authorities, the immediate task is to manage schools built for larger generations while continuing to provide suitable education for smaller ones. South Korea's mix of closures, reduced classes and reused buildings shows several responses already under way.

Teacher Cuts and Pressure on the Government

South Korea's Ministry of Education announced a reduction of 2,232 teaching positions nationwide for the 2025 academic year. Its figures also included reductions of 1,289 elementary posts and 1,700 middle school posts.

Provincial and metropolitan education offices introduced temporary measures to absorb excess capacity. Some reduced class sizes to about 10 to 15 students and increased the number of classes.

President Lee Jae-myung, who won a snap election after the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, faces pressure from empty classrooms, teachers quitting in large numbers and the country's exceptionally low fertility rate.

Lee has promised a fiscal stimulus package intended to support growth and ease rising living costs. He said its purpose was to "prevent people's livelihoods from further worsening."

Lawmaker Jin Sun-mee, who disclosed the school closure statistics, has called for a lasting plan to turn unused facilities into community assets rather than allowing them to become liabilities.

The decisions involve competing needs: keeping education accessible for children who remain, avoiding spending on buildings with too few pupils and preserving useful spaces in communities losing population. The projected closures stretch across the next five years, while Seoul's small school forecast points to further contraction by 2029.

Kang's school continues to seek pupils through specialized activities and exchanges between provinces. Its immediate future remains uncertain. For the child who began first grade alone on March 3, the national debate begins with a simple reality: a school needs enough children and teachers to keep its classrooms working.

Key Points

• In 2026, 210 South Korean elementary schools enrolled no new pupils, compared with 116 five years earlier.
• Gangwon had 20 elementary schools with no first graders and 21 with only one; Kang's school in Pyeongchang has 18 students in total.
• South Korea has recorded 4,008 school closures, including 3,674 elementary schools. Another 107 closures are projected within five years.
• The fertility rate rose from 0.72 in 2023 to 0.8 in 2025, still far below the replacement level of about 2.1.
• Seoul has lost nine schools to student shortages since 2015 and expects 127 small schools by 2029, up from 80 this year.
• Of 376 unused former schools nationwide, 266 have been idle for more than a decade and 82 for over 30 years.
• Some campuses now house education for North Korean defectors, art exhibitions or visitor businesses, while public property rules restrict other conversions.
• Taiwan and London also face shrinking student populations, adding to pressure on schools and education budgets.