Why Jungang Elementary Students Met the Mayor of Dong-gu, Gwangju...

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Students of Jungang Elementary School are attracting attention by having a meeting with Im Taek, Mayor of Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, to discuss ways to utilize the school playground.

According to Dong-gu on the 20th, at 2 p.m. the previous day, five students from Class 1, Grade 4 of Jungang Elementary School and their homeroom teacher Jeon Wook visited the Dong-gu Office reception room.

They met with Mayor Im Taek and handed over handwritten letters containing the results of a project class they had prepared themselves.

Prior to this meeting with the mayor, the students conducted a project class in July aimed at directly solving local issues. The class theme was "Please Revitalize Our Area by Utilizing the Empty Playground."

The class was based on an internal analysis of why the student population is decreasing at Jungang Elementary School, a traditional school boasting over 100 years of history, and a survey conducted with 40 residents living near the school.

Currently, Jungang Elementary School has 34 students across six classes, with the number of students decreasing to the point of nearing the number of faculty members.

Because of this, physical education classes are held in the auditorium instead of the large playground, which spans approximately 1,500 pyeong (5,285㎡), and after school hours, the playground is left unused and neglected.

Feeling regretful about this situation, the fourth-grade students and their homeroom teacher collaborated on the project class results, which included various suggestions such as ▲ public institutions promoting urban regeneration projects to support the school ▲ increasing population inflow ▲ developing local industries ▲ creating more parks and playgrounds, all carefully analyzed with charts, photos, maps, and examples from abroad.

Along with this, based on the survey conducted with residents, they proposed "Let’s Turn Our School Playground into a Park."

The proposal included transforming the playground into a multipurpose space combining a park, playground, and vegetable garden that residents could share, and utilizing the playground as an exhibition space for local artists in connection with the Art Street.

In response, Dong-gu informed the students about the annual "School Forest (Meditation Forest) Creation Project" contest organized by the Korea Forest Service and plans to support the budget if selected in the future.

This year, Chosun University Attached Middle School in the district was selected, and a meditation forest was created with a total project cost of 60 million won.

Mayor Im Taek of Dong-gu said, "I am proud and impressed by the Jungang Elementary students’ serious discussions and the process of deriving opinions with affection for their school," adding, "Our district office will also conduct more in-depth discussions on ways to utilize the Jungang Elementary School playground located on Art Street."

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