Public Policy and The Imbalance of The Systems: A System Dynamics Approach for The Shock of Lowered Retirement Age of Teachers on Education System

Since the economic crisis in 1997, the Korean government has implemented a number of reforms in order to eliminate inefficiencies in both private and public sectors. One of the reforms made in the public sector was to lower the retirement age of teachers from the original age of 65 to that age 62. The ultimate aim of this compulsory policy was to improve the quality level of education by hiring many young teachers instead of senior teachers. It was made based on the calculation that by lowering the retirement age by three years, the government can hire three young teachers with the saved wages. However, this policy has brought an unexpected result; the imbalance between the supply and demand for teachers has become a much more serious problem in Korea's elementary education system The purpose of this study is largely twofold; First of all, it aims to identify the scope of imbalances occurred in the supply-demand system of elementary school teachers in a region of the nation, and also to find out why such imbalance occurred. Secondly, the purpose of this study is to experiment with feasible policy alternatives and their effects on the system and to suggest some resolutions on the imbalance.