The number of school-age children going abroad to study has decreased for the first time.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology conducted a survey through the Korean Educational Development Institute.

According to the survey, the number of elementary, middle and high school students leaving the country for studying from March last year to February this year posted less than 28-thousand, down about two-thousand from the same period last year.

In 1998, 15-hundred went abroad for studying. The number jumped to over ten-thousand in 2002 and then to almost 30-thousand in 2006.

A ministry official attributed the decline to the decreasing number of students due to the nation’s low birthrates, and also to slowing economy.