The number of young South Korean students who studied abroad last year stood at just over ten-thousand-900, dropping to a third of its peak eight years ago.
 
According to statistics by the Korean Education Development Institute, 44-hundred elementary school students, 37-hundred middle school students and 27-hundred high school students left the country to study abroad in 2014.
 
The combined figure is a third of 2006, when the number peaked at over 29-thousand-500. 
 
The 2014 figure was also down about 12 percent from the previous year.
 
The number of primary and secondary school students heading abroad to study topped ten-thousand for the first time in 2002. After peaking in 2006, however, the figure decreased from 2007.
 
The Education Ministry attributed the decline to improved infrastructure for English education at home and the diminished view that studying abroad at an early age would help students get into universities and land jobs.