The wave of teacher resignations in South Korea has drawn attention. More than 32,000 teachers have resigned in five years

Recently, data from the South Korean Ministry of Education shows that from 2019 to 2023, more than 32,000 teachers in South Korea's national and public primary and secondary schools have resigned, and the number of resignations has been increasing year by year. In the first eight months of this year, the number of resigned teachers has exceeded 3,300.

Teacher resignations are mainly divided into two types: "voluntary resignation" and "honorable retirement" (early retirement for those with more than 20 years of teaching experience). Among them, the number of "voluntary resignations" increased from 690 in 2021 to 924 in 2023, and the number of "honorable retirements" increased from 5,763 in 2021 to 6,480 in 2023. From March last year to February this year, 576 teachers with less than 10 years of teaching experience resigned, an increase from 448 in 2020.

Many factors have led to an increase in the teacher resignation rate. On the one hand, the degree of respect for the teaching profession in society has decreased, it has become more difficult to manage students, and incidents of teachers' rights being violated occur frequently. For example, last year, a primary school teacher in Seoul committed *** due to malicious complaints from parents, triggering protests from teachers across the country. On the other hand, teachers' salaries and benefits are relatively low. A survey by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations found that 86% of teachers under 40 years old have considered resigning, mainly due to dissatisfaction with their salaries. In addition, young teachers and students who will become teachers in the future have lost confidence in their career prospects. Last year, the dropout rate of basic education departments in many colleges and universities increased significantly.

In the face of this situation, teacher groups have called on the government to take effective measures to improve the educational environment and teacher treatment. Members of the ruling People Power Party of South Korea also said that the government should formulate and implement relevant safeguards and policies as soon as possible to retain outstanding educators. This "wave of resignations" in South Korea's education field has sounded an alarm for the future development of South Korea's education. How to solve this problem has become an important issue that South Korean society urgently needs to think about and solve.