(123rf)
(123rf)

The number of elementary, middle and high school teachers who voluntarily resigned from their posts rose every year from 2019 to 2024, according to recent government data revealed Tuesday.

A total of 7,467 teachers resigned last year, according to the office of Rep. Jung Sung-kook of the ruling People Power Party, which compiled data provided by education offices across the country. It marked a consistent increase from 5,937 in 2019, 6,331 in 2020, 6,453 in 2021, 6,579 in 2022, and 7,467 in 2023.

The figure tallied the number of teachers who resigned between January and December each year.

In the first two months of this year, 3,522 teachers quit their jobs. Of them, 3,487 did so in the form of early retirement, which marked a decrease from 5,212 cases of early retirements in the corresponding period of 2024. A teacher qualifies for the early retirement package after completing 20 years of service.

Rep. Jung noted the 2025 decrease in the number of teachers quitting, partly contributing it to the strengthened legal protection of teachers' rights following the 2023 death of a teacher in Seoul.

The Seoi Elementary School teacher died by suicide in the school, allegedly due to work-related stress. There were allegations that the deceased had been subject to harassment, mostly from the parents of her students.

The new legal clauses enacted in 2023 focus on granting the teachers the authority to separate students causing problems in the classroom, while ensuring that the school operates a separate team to respond to parental complaints.

But Rep. Jung said the teaching environment in the country is still inadequate compared to other developed countries, urging measures to retain teachers.

Surveys indicate teachers are discontent with their jobs, feel unprotected

Only 26.6 percent of teachers said that the new law was effective in protecting their rights, according to a May 2024 survey by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations on 11,320 teachers. The survey showed that 19.7 percent of the respondents said they would choose to be a teacher in their next life, the lowest-ever figure in the annual KFTA survey conducted since 2012, and less than half of the 52.6 percent in the 2016 report.

Job security and relatively consistent working hours had once made teaching one of the most coveted jobs in the country, but reports indicate that its appeal has shrunk in recent years.

A 2023 report by the Korean Educational Development Institute showed that the number of teachers who opted for early retirement skyrocketed from 869 in 2005 to 6,594 in 2021. The number peaked in 2014 at 8,132 and dipped below 5,500 for the subsequent three years. It stayed above the 6,000 mark since 2018.

The KEDI report tallied the number of early retirements issued between April 2 of any given year to April 1 of the next year. For instance, the 2021 report covers teachers' resignations between April 2, 2021, to April 1, 2022.

By any standards, reports indicate that more teachers are voluntarily quitting their jobs.

The number of teachers annually quitting accounts for a little over 1 percent of some 380,000 elementary, middle and high school teachers in the country. But a potentially more alarming issue is that a growing number of younger teachers -- without the 20-year tenure required for early retirement -- are quitting their posts.

Rep. Jung's report showed that 695 of these younger teachers voluntarily resigned in 2019, but the figure gradually grew to 924 in 2023 and 943 in 2024.

Another May 2024 survey by the KFTA on 11,377 teachers showed that 87 percent of the respondents said they mulled getting another job, with 25.9 percent saying they thought about quitting nearly every day. Some 68.4 percent said they were not content with being a teacher.


minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com