Per-pupil education grants to rise due to shrinking enrollment

Education finances per student are expected to exceed W30m by 2032

Students browse books at a bookstore on Dec. 27. (Yonhap)

South Korean students will each benefit more from central government education spending in 10 years’ time as shrinking enrollment numbers push per-pupil budgets up, data showed Tuesday.

As Korea grapples with a dwindling school-age population, fewer students are likely to be enrolled at schools across the nation in the coming years. As a result, the estimated education subsidy per pupil is expected to rise to some 20 million won ($15,350) in 2028 and to surpass 30 million won in 2032.

The school-age population refers to all students aged between 6 and 17.

The estimated education subsidy per pupil in 2023 was 12.07 million won, based on the National Assembly Budget Office’s medium-term fiscal outlook and Statistics Korea’s forecast on population for the years 2022 to 2072.

The National Assembly Budget Office also predicted that, backed by increases in tax revenue, the central government’s education spending would climb from 64.4 trillion won in 2023 to 110.3 trillion won in 2032, an increase of 71.3 percent. The national budget comes from various sources of tax revenue, including 20.79 percent of domestic taxes and a portion of the education tax.

The education finances used to operate schools and other educational institutions make up nearly 70 percent of each local education office’s budget.

Meanwhile, 31.3 percent of recently built schools are currently suffering from a student shortage, a report by the Korea Educational Development Institute showed Monday. The report was based on a survey of the number of students attending 214 elementary, middle and high schools across the nation that had been built between 2018 and 2020.

South Korea will also see the lowest number of first-grade enrollees this year, with the figure set to drop below 400,000 for the first time, according to the Education Ministry.

In addition, the number of elementary, middle and high school students is expected to fall sharply to 3.6 million in 2032, down 31.9 percent from 5.3 million in 2023, according to the national statistics agency.

By Park Jun-hee(junheee@heraldcorp.com)