Songpa-gu Selected as One of the Top 5 Excellent Lifelong Learning Cities Nationwide

Proving the Excellence of the First Autonomous District Self-Education Model ‘Songpa SSEM’

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Songpa-gu (Mayor Park Seong-su) announced on the 21st that it has been selected as an excellent lifelong learning city in the ‘Lifelong Learning City Re-designation Evaluation’ conducted by the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Lifelong Education.

The lifelong learning city selection project is a program supported by the Ministry of Education since 2001 to help local governments establish a lifelong education foundation. Currently, 167 local governments have been selected and are operating as lifelong learning cities.

In this year’s first re-designation evaluation, 42 cities that had been designated as lifelong learning cities for more than four years were comprehensively evaluated over the past three years on ▲implementation system ▲program operation ▲network and social value creation performance to determine whether to re-designate them.

Songpa-gu, first designated as a lifelong learning city in 2013, was selected not only for re-designation but also as one of the top five autonomous districts nationwide and awarded the title of ‘Excellent Lifelong Learning City’ in this evaluation.

In particular, the district’s own education model, ‘Songpa SSEM (Songpa Smart Education Model),’ which encompasses all education-related projects and infrastructure, received attention.

‘Songpa SSEM,’ a key project of the 7th local government administration, was highly evaluated for providing customized learning opportunities throughout the entire life cycle through ▲Person Library ▲Future Education Center ▲Songpa SSEM Education Portal construction, and for fostering an educational community culture by utilizing excellent local resources.

Additionally, the achievements of systematically developing the lifelong learning city through periodic mid- to long-term plans were selected as exemplary cases.

Among them, the district’s multifaceted efforts to build a sustainable learning city environment, such as ▲establishing and promoting a comprehensive lifelong learning plan ▲constructing a dedicated building for Songpa-gu Lifelong Learning Center ▲operating Songpa Future Education Center and neighborhood learning centers ▲expanding dedicated lifelong education personnel ▲supporting customized lifelong learning by life cycle ▲supporting learning communities, are expected to be introduced to other lifelong learning cities.

Accordingly, Songpa-gu will receive a commendation from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and a financial incentive of 30 million KRW.

Moreover, it has been recommended as a candidate city for the ‘UNESCO Learning City Award’ and will be introduced as an excellent case at the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities conference.

Mayor Park Seong-su of Songpa-gu said, “This selection as an ‘Excellent Lifelong Learning City’ is the result of our efforts to support learning in daily life for our residents,” and added, “We will continue to systematically promote Songpa’s unique lifelong learning infrastructure such as Songpa SSEM and lead the way as a representative lifelong learning city in Korea.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.