South Korea's teacher resignations hit record high of 7,626

Last year, a teacher at Seo-i Elementary School in Seoul committed suicide, and the number of teachers who quit their jobs reached a record high. On the 30th, Rep. Baek Seung-A of the Democratic Party of Korea and the Korean Teachers' Union held a press conference entitled "201
The report also revealed that the number of teachers leaving schools is increasing every year.
In the past five years, a total of 33,705 teachers have quit their jobs. 14,295 at elementary schools and 10,000 at junior high schools.
The number of teachers who quit their jobs is increasing every year. In 2019, 6,151 teachers quit their jobs, and in 2023, when the Mizuni Elementary School incident occurred, the number is expected to reach 7,626.
The number of teachers with less than five years of experience totaled 1,362, down from 226 in 2019, 241 in 2020, and 236 in 2021, the highest number ever recorded.
The number rose to 239 in 2021, 275 in 2022, and 341 last year. The number of veteran teachers with more than 15 but less than 25 years of experience who quit their jobs also showed a sharp increase.
The number of teachers who left before retirement age after 15 to 25 years of teaching experience was 550 in 2019, 546 in 2020, 631 in 2021, 665 in 2022, and 2
In 2013, there were 805 teachers, for a total of 3,197. The dropout rate for all teachers was 1.50% for elementary school, 2.43% for middle school, and 1.93% for high school, with elementary school teachers having the lowest rate, but the dropout rate for those who stayed for less than five years was 1.
Among the lower grades, the percentage was 0.54% in elementary schools, 0.30% in middle schools, and 0.29% in high schools, with elementary schools being the highest. Assemblyman Baek said, "Teacher morale has fallen due to the decline in authority of the education system and an increase in malicious complaints."
"The national government needs to pay attention to and support the restoration of teaching rights and the improvement of educational conditions so that teachers do not leave schools," they demanded.