The variety of college students in Korea from multicultural backgrounds surpassed 200,000 for the primary time this yr, but many proceed to face challenges within the classroom, in keeping with current authorities information.
Information launched Sunday by Rep. Kang Kyung-sook of the Rebuilding Korea Occasion confirmed that college students from multicultural households accounted for 477 highschool dropouts throughout the 2023 educational yr, a 2.22 p.c dropout charge, in keeping with the Ministry of Schooling.
The speed has gone up steadily — from 1.36 p.c in 2020 to 1.93 p.c in 2021 and 1.99 p.c in 2022 — surpassing 2 p.c for the primary time final yr. This determine is larger than the nationwide highschool dropout charge, which reached 2.0 p.c in 2023.
The commonest motive college students from multicultural backgrounds cited for leaving college was problem adapting, in keeping with the information. In 2023, greater than 200 college students pointed to challenges at school life — together with struggles with Korean-language courses — as a key issue. Instructional consultants estimate that almost all of scholars from multicultural backgrounds rating within the lowest achievement tier on nationwide assessments.
In line with a 2024 authorities survey, 57.8 p.c of scholars from multicultural backgrounds mentioned they’d participated in non-public tutoring over the previous yr, in comparison with 81.4 p.c of the whole. On the identical time, faculty entrance charges for these college students remained decrease, with solely 61.8 p.c coming into a four-year college regardless of 71.6 p.c expressing hopes to take action.
Though the determine marks a major enhance from 2021, when solely about 4 out of each 10 multicultural college students went to college, it nonetheless stays 13 proportion factors decrease than the typical nationwide charge.
“Because the variety of college students with multicultural backgrounds rises, faculties should transcend language assist to present built-in assist that covers teachers, emotional well-being and profession steering,” Kang mentioned, urging the federal government to supply stronger assist for these college students to make sure they adapt and thrive at school.
