Young teachers less willing to stay after 2023 suicide

An empty classroom (123rf)

Young teachers in Korea showed a sharp decline in their willingness to remain in the profession until retirement in 2023, the same year the suicide of a 24-year-old elementary school teacher brought nationwide attention to teachers’ rights and working conditions.

According to a study published in the journal of the Korea Society for the Study of Teacher Education, teachers were asked whether they planned to teach until retirement.

Among teachers in their 20s and 30s, 57 percent said yes in 2022, but this dropped to 45 percent in 2023.

The 12 percentage-point drop was much bigger than the decline of 61 percent to 57 percent among teachers in their 40s.

The number of young teachers who were willing to stay in school until retirement had already been decreasing sharply, falling from 63 percent to 57 percent between 2021 and 2022. But the rate of decline doubled the following year.

The study was based on the data of 1,218 teachers across the country in a research by the Korean Educational Development Institute between 2021 and 2023.

The recent findings indicated that the elementary school teacher's death in 2023 had a substantial impact on teachers of a similar age.

In July 2023, a teacher at Seoi Elementary School in Seoul died by suicide, an incident widely believed to be linked to work-related stress.

The case sparked nationwide protests over teachers’ rights, including a mass collective action on Sept. 4, when tens of thousands of teachers took leave simultaneously in what amounted to a de facto walkout.