As the birthrate plummets in South Korea, rural schools are emptying. To fill its classrooms, one school opened its doors to old women who have for decades dreamed of learning to read and write.
South Korea’s birthrate has been plummeting in recent decades, falling to less than one child per woman last year, one of the lowest in the world.
The hardest hit areas are rural counties, where babies have become an increasingly rare sight as young couples migrate en masse to big cities for better-paying jobs.
The worst calamity of all struck the district.
“We went around villages looking for just one precious kid to enrol as a first grader,” said the principal, Lee Ju-young. “There was none.”
Desperate to save the 96-year-old school, the principal came up with an idea: to enrol older villagers who wanted to learn to read and write!
8 women, aged 56 to 80, stepped forward, with at least four others asking to be enrolled next year.