Actually the parrellel’s to Kollel pretty much exist in the Torah.
The entire Shevet Yissoschar as well as Shevet Levi were set aside to be in “kollel”.
As per Chumash 2 out of 12 shevatim means 1/6.
Furthermore the Gemara in Megilla teaches us that in order to be considered a major city there had to be at least ten “batlanim” i.e a kollel of Ten.
So yes it was an anomaly that sadly for years Klal Yisroel lacked the requisite amount of people being dedicated to the Dvar Hashem.
B”h we know do have thousands of Yidden doing just that.
However sadly due to the millions of “not yet” observant jews as well the amount of Yidden dedicated to being “batlanim is still far below 1/6 of the nation.