More than 200 students from multicultural families dropped out of school from March 2010 to February 2011 due to difficulties with adapting, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The number is slightly less than the 223 dropouts from the 2009-10 school year according to the ministry. The students with international backgrounds in elementary, middle and high school totaled 31,788 in 2010-11, up more than 22 percent from the previous years.

Of them 215 have quit or taken a long break, according to the ministry’s report presented to Rep. Park Seong-ho of the ruling Saenuri Party.

The dropout rates were 1.9 percent for multicultural high school students, 1.6 percent for middle school students and 0.4 percent for elementary students.

(596story@heraldcorp.com)