Gangdong-gu (Mayor Lee Jung-hun) revealed that it would give support of KRW 13 billion to the educational field to make the happy educational city of Gangdong.

Based on the district’s budget of KRW 13 billion, the education subsidy will support ninety-seven kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as numerous educational projects for various classes such as the Self-Directed Learning SupportCenter,LifelongLearning Center, and the Occupation Experience Center.

With last year’s unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gangdong-gu established e-Studio, the first distance learning support system by an autonomous district, to take the lead in future education.

 Based on this system, Gangdong-gu will advance with various projects with the goal of providing balanced educational support between universal educational welfare and leading future education.

Gangdong-gu will support various projects this year:the promotion of free educational welfare in terms of meals, education, and school uniforms with KRW 8.3 billion; execution of the "Happy School" project in which strives for enhancement of study environment, and groundbreaking improvements of the educationalenvironmentwithKRW 1.7 billion; construction and revitalization of a smart education platform with KRW 580 million; advancement of the Gangdong Innovative Educational Zone with KRW 1.5 billion; and advancement of the lifelong learning program forall generationswithKRW 230 million.

The district supported new middle and high school students with free school uniforms starting September 2018 by establishing the Gangdong-gu Ordinance on Uniform Support for the first time in the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and 9,855 middle and highschoolstudentsreceived the support of free school uniforms as of last year. Starting this year, new middle and high school students will receive the admission support fund that can be used to buy school uniforms, textbooks, and smart learning devices,and7.674 studentsare expected to receive this benefit.

Furthermore, the free eco-friendly meals and free learning that was only provided for high school students will now be available to all elementary, middle school students as well.

Gangdong-gu’s representative project for improved school environments, the "Happy School" project dreamed of and made by uswill continue to be promoted. Happy School is a project that recreates shared uniform school spaces into practical, creative spaces with participation of students, teachers, parents along with the help of public architects who will act as designdirectors.

The "Happy School" project took root as a model for a successfully improved learning environment by receiving the Silver Award in administrative innovations at the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the Minister's Award at the National Design Excellent ProjectOutcome Sharing Competition.Five new schools are expected to be open this year in addition to the thirty-one schools that opened last year.

With this project, the construction of theGangdong-gu Smart Education Platform, a model for the unparalleled and leading future educational support project, will be completed. Last year, the district determined its need to switch to a new future educational system due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and gave the supportto create a digital educational environment through the construction of e-Studios and servers at schools. Based on this system, developments of the e-Cloud and future educational portal systems were completed, and student-centered, digitalized, andlocal educational innovations are expected to improve.

A total of KRW 1.5 billion will be invested in the Gangdong Innovative Educational Zone Project, which will carry out twenty-eight projects in the four areas, such as village-school connection, autonomous activities of youths, private-public-academicgovernance, and local specialization. This year, an emphasis will be placed on an online project for future education, and activities that connect schools with teachers in villages will receive positive support.

Furthermore, various projects such as the Self-Directed Learning Support Center and the Occupation Experience Center projects that will help students learn independently and discover their career paths will be promoted along with various progressiveprojects that will be initiated with collected opinions of schools, educational institutions, students, parents, and residents.

Mayor Lee Jung-hun commented, “The role and responsibility of autonomous districts for substantial educational welfare is growing every day. The keepers of schools are children, and the local community is another type of school for children. We willdo our best to create a community that is promising to all and make the educational city of Gangdong.”

• 

  Last year, Gangdong-gu constructed the e-Studio for the first time by an autonomous district to accommodate the switch to distance learning due to COVID-19.(Last April, a teacher at Seongdeok High School held an online class with students.)