Even in the same environment of declining school-age population, the trends in advancing to higher education are sharply diverging. While the number of applicants to early childhood education departments at local technical colleges has fallen to the lowest level in the past five years due to the low birth rate, the largest number of applicants in the past five years has been concentrated in local four-year teachers’ colleges and universities of education. Analysis suggests that structural changes are in full swing within the education world, with career choices being differentiated depending on ‘what kind of teacher one is.’
◆Support for Confucianism departments at community colleges has been cut in half in 5 years
Among Daegu junior colleges, there are five schools that recruited early childhood education students in the 2026 regular recruitment process, including Keimyung University of Culture, Daegu Science University, Daegu Health College, Suseong University, and Yeongjin College (in alphabetical order). In the case of Daegu Technical University, recruitment has been suspended from the 2026 school year due to difficulties in recruiting students.
According to each university on the 15th, 1,384 people applied to five early childhood education departments at junior colleges in Daegu in this rolling recruitment, which is the lowest number in the past five years (2022-2026 school years).
From the 2022 to 2026 academic year, the number of applicants for early childhood education at these universities is steadily decreasing from 2,260 → 2,047 → 1,625 → 1,451 → 1,384. During the same period, the competition rate continued to decline from 4.55 → 4.36 → 3.59 → 3.37 → 3.40.
The number of applicants for early childhood education at four local four-year universities was found to have decreased from 1,037 in the 2022 school year to 808 in the 2026 school year. During the same period, the competition rate also dropped significantly from 12.35 to 9.40.
Professor A of the early childhood education department at a local community college complained, “When I go to high schools for admission consultation, there are usually few students who want to go into the health field such as nursing and apply for the early childhood education department. In addition to anxiety about the future of the profession due to low birth rates, negative issues such as child abuse cases that have been repeatedly reported in the media in recent years have created a negative perception of the profession of kindergarten teacher, which seems to have contributed to the decrease in the number of applicants.”
The atmosphere of the College of Education and Daegu National University of Education is quite different.
In the 2026 regular recruitment, the number of applicants to five major local four-year universities, Kyungpook National University, Keimyung University, Daegu Catholic University, Daegu University, and Yeungnam University (in alphabetical order), was 10,415, the highest in the past five years. The number of applicants to the College of Education rebounded from 6,881 in the 2022 school year to 8,116 in the 2023 school year and stayed in the 7,000 range for a while, but this year it surged to 10,415. As applicants flocked in, the competition rate jumped to 8.95 to 1, hitting a new high in the past five years.
Daegu National University of Education also recorded 1,810 applicants for rolling admissions for the 2026 school year, the highest number in the past five years. Over the past five years, the number of applicants has increased from 1,251 to 1,194 → 1,227 → 1,764 → 1,810, showing an overall upward trend.
◆Accelerating decline in kindergartens, stagnation in elementary, middle, and high schools
Even amidst the same decline in the school-age population, the impact of low birth rates appears faster and stronger in early childhood education than in elementary and middle school education, leading to a decline in early childhood education.
Comparing the changes in the number of kindergartens and the number of elementary, middle, and high schools in Daegu over the past five years (2021-2025), it can be seen that the impact of low birth is larger and more directly evident at the kindergarten stage.
According to education statistics, the number of local kindergartens decreased from 342 in 2021 to 329 the following year, then slightly decreased from 322 in 2023 to 320 in 2024. Then, last year, the number fell sharply to 306, down 14 from the previous year.
During the same period, the number of local elementary schools increased slightly from 232 in 2021 to 233 in 2022, then decreased again to 232 in 2023, but increased to 240 in 2024 when Gunwi-gun was incorporated and then maintained the same level in 2025.
The number of middle schools was maintained at 125 from 2021 to 2022 and decreased by one to 124 in 2023, but then increased to 127 in 2024 and remained unchanged until 2025. High schools also remained stagnant at 94 from 2021 to 2023, but increased to 96 from 2024 and have remained unchanged.
According to the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education, in the past five years, among Daegu elementary schools, the Joya branch principal of Seobyeon Elementary School has closed, and two middle schools, Gyodong Middle School and Shindang Middle School, have closed. There were no high schools closed during this period.
A kindergarten teacher in Dong-gu, Daegu explained, “The impact of low birth rates hits kindergartens first. When the number of births decreases, the number of kindergartens decreases within a few years, and even public kindergartens are being merged, and private kindergartens are closing more quickly.”
He continued, “Compared to elementary and middle school teachers, kindergarten teachers are the profession most affected by low birth rates, so it seems difficult to expect long-term job stability in a situation where the number of institutions is decreasing, which seems to have an impact on career choice.”
Cha Sang-ro, director of Songwon Academy, said, “Recently, many kindergartens have been put up for sale in the region, and many of them have been converted into day care centers. It seems that the loss of jobs due to the closure of kindergartens has led to a low rate of early childhood education and support.”
