More South Korean high school freshmen leave school

June 7 (Asia Today) -- More than 10,000 first-year students at South Korean general high schools left school before completing their first year for the first time, as more students appear to be turning to equivalency exams and the national college entrance test instead of competing under the school grading system.

According to an analysis by Jongno Academy of school disclosure data from School Info, 18,661 students at 1,703 general high schools nationwide stopped attending school last year. The figure was up 163, or 0.9%, from 18,498 a year earlier and was the highest level in the past seven years.

The category includes voluntary withdrawal, expulsion and removal from school rolls, though most cases are believed to involve students voluntarily leaving school.

By grade level, first-year high school students accounted for 10,450 cases, or 56.0% of the total. Second-year students accounted for 7,346 cases, or 39.4%, while third-year students accounted for 865 cases, or 4.6%.

It was the first time the number of first-year general high school students leaving school exceeded 10,000 since Jongno Academy began compiling the data in 2019. The figure rose by 603, or 6.1%, from 9,847 a year earlier and more than doubled from 5,015 in 2020.

By region, the number of first-year students leaving school in Seoul fell 2.3% from a year earlier to 1,515. But the number rose 11.6% to 4,331 in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon and increased 4.3% to 4,604 in other regions.

Among provinces and major cities, Gwangju had the sharpest increase at 22.1%, followed by South Chungcheong Province at 13.3% and Gyeonggi Province at 12.5%.

By school, the number of students leaving was relatively high at non-standardized high schools in Gyeonggi Province and in education-focused districts of Seoul such as Gangnam, Seocho and Yangcheon. The three general high schools with the largest number of students leaving last year were all non-standardized schools in Gyeonggi Province.

The increase is partly attributed to the five-level high school grading system introduced for first-year students last year, along with the full implementation of the high school credit system.

Under the five-level grading system, students in the top 10% receive the highest grade and those in the top 34% receive the second-highest grade. Although the system reduces some pressure by replacing the previous nine-level grading scale, some students may have concluded that admission to top universities would be difficult unless they ranked in the highest group.

The trend is also connected to a rise in students from the General Educational Development Test pathway applying for the College Scholastic Ability Test, South Korea's national college entrance exam.

The number of national college exam applicants who came through the equivalency exam route reached 20,109 for the 2025 academic year and 22,355 for the 2026 academic year, staying above 20,000 for two consecutive years. The 2026 figure was the highest in 31 years, since 42,297 applicants in the 1995 academic year.

"Although the change from a nine-level grading system to a five-level system can be seen as easing the burden of grade classification, many students appear to have judged that entering major universities would be difficult if they failed to reach the top grade," said Im Sung-ho, head of Jongno Academy.

"There needs to be an admissions policy that can support students who fall out of the top tier in school grades," Im said.

-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260607010002072

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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 6:45 PM.