An academy in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Reporter Songi Park
Over the past 10 years, more elementary and middle school students have left Seoul than returned to Seoul. The number of students heading to Gangnam District 8 is also decreasing. On the other hand, as the number of students moving into the Gyeonggi region increases, there is an analysis that the so-called prestigious school district may move.
On the 29th, Jongno Academy announced that it appeared as a result of analyzing data from the Korea Educational Development Institute’s educational statistics service. From 2013 to last year, there was a net outflow (moving-out) of middle school students in the Seoul area every year, with a total of 5,342 people leaving for other areas. This means that there were more middle school students who moved from Seoul to other regions than middle school students who moved to Seoul over the past 10 years. In the last five years since 2018, there has been a net outflow of 2845 middle school students from Seoul, which is 348 more than the net outflow of the previous five years (2013-2017) (2497).
The number of students moving to the so-called ‘Gangnam 8th School District’, such as Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu, known as prestigious school districts, is also decreasing. From 2013 to 2017, 1994 net inflows were made here, but from 2018 to last year, 1021 net inflows, about half of them.
Unlike Seoul, where the scale of net outflow is the largest in the country, a total of 4,120 net inflows from the Gyeonggi region over 10 years. From 2018 to 2022, there was a net influx of 3243, which is an increase of about 269.8% from the previous five years (877). As of last year, Hanam City (390 people), Pyeongtaek City (199 people), and Hwaseong City (156 people) had the largest net inflows.
The same goes for elementary school students. Elementary school students in the Seoul area had a net outflow of 16,948 students over the five years after 2013 and 16,713 over the five years after 2018, totaling 33,661 students over the past 10 years. On the other hand, in the Gyeonggi area, the net inflow increased significantly from 444 to 14,856 over the same period.
In the academies, there is an analysis that the school districts, which were mainly composed of Seoul, especially the Gangnam area, are moving to the metropolitan area. Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, said, “Entrance barriers such as real estate prices in existing prestigious school districts must have acted as a variable.” . He continued, “The prestigious school district ‘Gangnam 8th School District’ may now become a thing of the past.”
