Children walk outside an elementary school in Seoul, Nov. 7. Yonhap

The number of elementary school freshmen nationwide is expected to drop below the 400,000 mark next year for the first time amid Korea's record low birth rates.

Education insiders widely predict that the number of elementary school freshmen for the 2024 academic year, born in 2017, may fall short of 400,000 although the interior ministry has yet to complete its official count.

For the 2023 academic year, a total of 401,752 students born in 2016 enrolled as elementary school freshmen, barely surpassing the 400,000 mark.

The number of newborns, which recorded 406,243 in 2016, declined sharply to 357,771 in 2017, according to Statistics Korea, bringing the total birth rate from 1.172 in 2016 to 1.052 the next year.

It is widely assumed that after 2017, the country may soon see the number of elementary school freshmen further fall below the 300,000 mark as the total birth rate turned below one percent in 2018.

The number of newborns in 2020 reached 272,337, breaking the 300,000 mark.

A sharp fall in the number of students can shrink the number of schools nationwide, especially in sparsely populated fringe areas, compromising the education quality in those regions and eventually the entire education system. (Yonhap)