Critics label as ‘absurd’ idea from government-backed thinktank as country seeks to address population decline
A government thinktank in South Korea has sparked anger after suggesting that girls start primary school a year earlier than boys because the measure could raise the country’s low birthrate.
A report by analysts at the Korea Institute of Public Finance said creating a one-year age gap between girls and boys at school would make them more attractive to each other by the time they reached marriageable age.
The claim is based on the idea that men are naturally attracted to younger women because men mature more slowly. Those women, in theory, would prefer to marry older men.
Do schools in Korea ban different grades from talking to each other? What’s stopping someone from one grade up from being with someone one grade down (or a year down if in college or something). They’re making it seem like, currently, you can only interact with people your own age?
It is just much more likely that you get to know someone in your class.
So the idea is that if the girls were a year younger, but in the same grade, they’d be more likely to get married? I assume not in high school. I am having trouble wrapping my mind around the concept here.