Primary school consists of grades one to six (age 8 to age 13 in Korean years—6 to 11 or 7 to 12 in western years). Students learn subjects including, but not limited to: korean writing, korean listening, korean reading, korean speaking, algebra, geometry, science, social studies, korean history, fine arts, English (from the third grade), Physical Education (PE), moral education, practical arts, and music. Usually, the class teacher covers most of the subjects; however, there are some specialised teachers in professions such as physical education and foreign languages, including English.
Primary schools are called chodeung-hakgyo (Hangeul:초등학교 Hanja:初等學校,), meaning primary school. The South Korean government changed its name to the current form from gukmin hakgyo (Hangeul:국민학교 Hanja:國民學校) meaning citizens' school in 1996. It was a shorttened word of hwangguk shinmin hakgyo (Hangeul:황국신민학교 Hanja:皇國臣民學校) meaning school of the people who are subjects of the Empire (of Japan).
Those who wish to become a primary school teacher must major in primary education, which is specially designed to cultivate primary school teachers. In Korea, most of the primary teachers are working for public primary schools.
Because corporal punishment has been officially prohibited in every classroom since 2011, many teachers and some parents raised with corporal punishment are becoming more concerned about what they see as worsening discipline problems. However, still many teachers infringe the law and raise their students with corporal punishment.[citation needed]