Vice Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon speaks during a plenary meeting of the National Assembly Education Committee, Tuesday, in this pool photo. Yonhap

Vice Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon said Tuesday it has become "realistically difficult" to continue to push ahead with a widely unpopular proposal to lower the elementary school starting age by one year to 5.

The remark was seen as meaning the government is scrapping the proposal after Education Minister Park Soon-ae stepped down a day earlier amid an outcry from teachers and parents against the plan to advance the school starting age.