The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education has requested a police investigation for children who did not attend the preliminary elementary school enrollment for the first semester of the 2025 academic year and remain unresponsive.   

According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education on the 6th, as of January 27th, 8,204 children were absent from the preliminary elementary school enrollment for the 2025 academic year, and among them, 131 children who were difficult to contact were referred to the police for investigation.

It was found that 45 of these children are in Korea, while the remaining 86 have left the country.

The preliminary elementary school enrollment for the 2025 academic year was conducted for 52 days from December 11th of last year to January 31st of this year, with the principle of face-to-face attendance to provide smooth information on elementary school enrollment and to confirm the whereabouts and safety of children.

If a child does not attend the preliminary elementary school enrollment, the school and local government check their whereabouts and safety through methods such as wired and video calls, confirmation of immigration facts through the joint use of administrative information, and visits to their residence.

If it is difficult to confirm the whereabouts and safety of a child, the jurisdictional police station is requested to investigate to check whether the child is in a safe condition.

Gyeonggi Provincial Superintendent of Education Lim Tae-hee introduced the current status of those absent from the preliminary elementary school enrollment on his SNS account on the same day and said he would make efforts to ensure their safety.

Superintendent Lim explained, "131 students in Gyeonggi did not attend the preliminary enrollment for the new semester. Our Office of Education requested a police investigation to determine the whereabouts and safety of the students. It has been reported that most of these students reside overseas or have postponed their enrollment."   

He added, "We will work with the police to determine their whereabouts until we have the result that 'all our students are safe.'"

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