South Korea's chronically-low birthrate is no longer exclusively affecting the infant age range,.... the issue is edging up the demographic scale,... forcing elementary schools to shut.
With fewer and fewer students,... even a school in Seoul -- a capital city of more than 20 million people -- is closing due to a lack of students.
Cha Sang-mi has the story.
"Saturday marked the 53rd anniversary of the opening of Eunhye Elementary School. But even before the celebration took place, the history of the school technically ended on Tuesday, as the parents of the last few remaining students decided to transfer their kids to other schools."
The silence is deafening in an otherwise ordinary looking schoolyard.
Eunhye Elementary School in Seoul's northwestern Eunpyeong-gu District is the first elementary school in the capital to shut due to the ongoing plunge in the number of students.
Just looking at Seoul, the number of elementary school students has plummeted nearly 45 percent over the last seven years from 755-thousand to a mere 428-thousand.
An expert on demographics says one or two married couples deciding not to have kids can be an individual problem, but when the trend is rampant and spreading, it becomes a grave social issue.
More and more couples in Korea are giving up on the idea of having kids, put off by the spiraling cost of raising children.
Statistics Korea reported this month that Korea's total fertility rate -- the average number of children born to a woman aged between 15 and 49 over her lifetime -- fell to just one-point-zero-five as of last year.
That's one of the lowest rates in the world.
The expert identified high educational expenses in Korea as the main factor behind the trend.
Korea's chronically-low birthrate and its rapidly aging population are two issues that are closely intertwined.
Fewer babies means fewer people of working age who will end up contributing to the economy.
As the population ages, the expert says Korea's growth engine is steadily eroding away.
"There are two ways to tackle it. First the government can provide benefits to married couples starting a family. The other option is to allow workers from other countries to move here. However,... the way they are treated and their working conditions should be considered carefully."
With the first elementary school closing in Seoul, the expert predicts more schools will be forced to shut in the coming years.
And few years down the line, it's likely universities will also share the same fate.
Cha Sang-mi, Arirang News.
