The South Korean government and the ruling party are considering lowering the minimum age to enter elementary school, which they said could help youth gain employment earlier and help the country tackle the low birthrate and aging society.
According to the provisional plan proposed by the Saenuri Party on Wednesday, the current age of 6 when one first enters school would be lowered ― without specifying details.
They will also look into changing the current school system, where one goes to elementary school for six years to be followed by three years of middle school, three years of high school and four years of university.
The party said the average age of graduates entering their first jobs was rising and viewed it as the main reason for late marriages and low fertility. The party also asked the government to prepare ways to restructure the university curriculum to prevent late bloomers.
“Despite investing some 100 trillion won of the budget over the past 10 years, there has been no analysis on why it has failed to overcome the low birthrate. … We need a complete change in the way we think and groundbreaking measures that go beyond simply allocating a budget,” said Saenuri chief policymaker Rep. Kim Jung-hoon.
