A growing number of Korean students are leaving the nation to study abroad.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said some 15-thousand elementary, middle and high school students in Seoul left for study in foreign countries last year, up from seven-thousand two years ago.

Particularly noteworthy is the rise in the number of elementary school students studying abroad. Their ranks nearly doubled to 82-hundred last year from 49-hundred in 2006.

The surge is attributed to intense pressure among Koreans to learn English. Also, many young students want to study abroad to ease their entry into foreign-language high schools in Korea.