Gangdong-gu (Mayor: Lee Hae-sik) to give 1.5 billion won in support for Seoul-based Innovative Educational District project.

The Seoul-based Innovative Educational District project will collaborate with local communities and schools for the purpose of creating an educational model for rearing children. In 2015, Seoul and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education put into effect a joint vision, “Seoul, a Globally Educational and Innovative City of Coexistence and Cooperation.”

In 2015, Gangdong-gu was the first to begin efforts with the Innovative Educational District project in the southeastern district of Seoul. It began as a priority district, and then was designated as an innovative district in 2016. In 2017, it achieved results as a re-designated district for the second consecutive year, and has been classified as an innovative educational district for four years running.

For the past three years, Gangdong-gu identified educational communities in the area and provided a foundation for youths to grow as citizens of the community. Gangdong-gu provided 300 million won in aid in the first year, 1.5 billion won in 2016, and 1.42 billion won in 2017.

In 2018, Gangdong-gu will provide a budget of 1.5 billion won for 34 projects in four categories, including a community-school linkage project, independent activities for youths, and operation of a public-private governance initiative with local specialized businesses. This year, emphasis was placed on a universal expansion of innovative education.

Programs targeting elementary school students are composed of “traditional plays” that provide support to daycare programs for first and second graders, and the “Exploring Our Neighborhood” program that is closely linked to the third grade curriculum. Fifth to sixth graders can participate in various activities, such as woodworking class, cooking class, and transition period experience education.

Continuing from 2017, Gangdong-gu will form a link with community educators and the free semester system for first year middle school students in order to support students’ subject selection.

Students in the transition period of the final year of middle and high school will learn about “Finding Labor Human Rights Education.” It will provide information on how youths can protect their interests from wrongful cases of employment and create an educational culture with amicable labor rights.

Gangdong-gu Mayor Lee Hae-sik stated, “Gangdong-gu and the Gangdong Songpa District Office of Education created an ideal and innovative model of public education through which local communities and schools can actively work together,” and “we will continue to create an educational environment where educational communities can all be owners.”

Meanwhile, Gangdong-gu has witnessed rapid growth in the field of education. In addition to the Innovative Educational District project started in 2015, the district designed the 2007 Lifelong Education City, opened the country’s first Self-Directed Learning Support Center in 2010, opened the first Seoul autonomous district Career Experience Center, “Sangsang Pangpang,” in 2012, and has been operating the “Creating a Good Middle School Project” since 2011. Gangdong-gu has been acknowledged for these efforts and results, and was awarded the top prize in the local autonomous district (local society partner) category of the “9th After School Program Subject,” organized by the Ministry of Education, on January 18.

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