Gwanak-gu 'Student-Community Elder Friendship' Supporting Students in Educational Blind Spots

Matching students with experienced village elders in education and counseling... Creating family-like bonds through five-day-a-week mentoring to promote children's psychological stability

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (District Mayor Park Jun-hee) is promoting the ‘Student-Village Adult Friendship’ project to support local youth facing issues such as basic academic underachievement and COVID-19 blues due to the rapid changes in the school education environment caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

As school classes are conducted remotely, children without guardians are experiencing various problems such as falling behind in basic academic skills and spending a lot of time alone, leading to excessive gaming and other issues.

In response, the district has devised support measures for youth in educational welfare blind spots through the public-private-academic governance of the Innovative Education District Project, and is implementing the ‘Student-Village Adult Friendship’ project in cooperation with Dongjak-Gwanak Office of Education and various local educational institutions.

The ‘Student-Village Adult Friendship’ project matches village adults with experience in education and counseling with students to provide ▲online classes ▲assignment guidance ▲sharing of interests and daily news.

In particular, by combining face-to-face and non-face-to-face methods and mentoring daily for five days a week, the project fosters family-like bonds to promote the psychological stability of children.

Currently, 11 mentors with diverse backgrounds such as music therapists, art therapists, and reading discussion instructors are actively working with about 30 students while adhering to quarantine rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through home visits and phone counseling.

Meanwhile, the district is also conducting various support activities for local youth, including ‘SAM Mentoring’ with university students from Seoul National University and others to support learning, career, and college admission, as well as ‘Theme-based Toktok Mentoring’ to support arts and cultural activities.

District Mayor Park Jun-hee said, “It is very unfortunate that youth cannot fully focus on academic and school activities due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. We will do our best to support the academic and emotional well-being of youth by cooperating with local village instructors and various institutions.”

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