South Korea's elementary school teacher turnover rate hits highest in five years as teachers skeptical of teaching profession

In South Korea, the dropout rate for elementary school teachers in 2023 has reached its highest level in the past five years. On the 8th, the office of Chin Sun-mi, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, announced that the number of teachers who quit their jobs was 100%.
According to the report, "Current turnover rate of elementary school teachers for the past 5 years (2019-2023)," the number of people who left the school mid-career compared to the current number of national, public, and private elementary school teachers last year was calculated to be 2.16%.
This is a 0.45 percentage point increase from the previous year, and is the highest in the five years since 2019. The turnover rate for elementary school teachers was 1.61% in 2019, 1.70% in 2020, and 1.44% in 2021.
The rate remained roughly the same at 1.63% in 1 year and 1.71% in 2022, but rose to the 2% range last year. The rate of teacher turnover within one year was 0.02% (up 0.01 percentage points from the previous year).
The turnover rate compared to the previous year increased in all three cases: for teachers with less than five years, it was 0.14% (an increase of 0.03 percentage points), and for teachers with less than 10 years, it was 0.21% (an increase of 0.05 percentage points).
The popularity of elementary school teaching is declining, with 667 students dropping out (voluntarily withdrawing, not registering, or not returning) in 2023 at 13 universities, colleges, and elementary education departments.
This is a 34.5% increase from 2022 (496 cases). This is because after the Mizuni Elementary School incident in July last year, skepticism towards the teaching profession has spread, especially among junior teachers and preparatory teachers.
In response to this situation, teachers' associations continue to call for the normalization of public education and improvements to teacher treatment.
Meanwhile, Jeong Seong-guk, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, received a letter from the Ministry of Education.
According to the "Current Status of Honorary Retirement and Dismissal of Teachers from Parliament" report, 7,404 public elementary, middle and high school teachers will resign in 2023. This figure is 5,937 in 2019, 6,331 in 2020 and 6,331 in 2023.
The number is increasing every year, from 6,453 in 2019 to 6,579 in 2022.