Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education Certifies 5 Schools as 'Kkumkium Small Schools'... "A Pillar to Prevent Village Disappearance"

Pohang Yangpo Elementary, Sangju Euncheok Elementary, Gunwi Songwon Elementary, Yeongyang Ilwol Elementary, Seongju Surun Middle

The Samulnori learning scene at Yangpo Elementary School in Pohang.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] The Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education announced on the 3rd that it conducted certification evaluations for the 'Kkumkium Small Schools' and selected five schools as excellent schools: Pohang Yangpo Elementary School, Sangju Euncheok Elementary School, Gunwi Songwon Elementary School, Yeongyang Ilwol Elementary School, and Seongju Surun Middle School.

The 'Kkumkium Small Schools' certification system is a program designed to maximize the advantages of small schools in rural and fishing villages, fostering 'small but strong schools' to become excellent schools that children voluntarily seek out.

Pohang Yangpo Elementary School introduced the small school free school district system this year and operated various distinctive programs such as barefoot walking, vegetable gardening, Samulnori (traditional Korean percussion quartet), poetry recitation meetings, trilingual presentations, and historical experiences of the Janggi-myeon independence movement. Leveraging these differentiations, the number of students at this school increased by 40.91%, from 22 last year to 31 this year.

Sangju Euncheok Elementary School introduced the small school free school district system this year and was selected for the small school cultivation project last year, operating various after-school programs including poetry recitation, Nanta (Korean percussion performance), band, violin, and saxophone. Additionally, through theater, choir classes, vegetable gardening, maker education, and parent club activities, the number of students increased from 28 last year to 37 this year.

Gunwi Songwon Elementary School introduced the small school free school district system last year and received high marks for traditional culture experience learning, family hiking, family experiential learning, drone club, English theater, choir, and green school operations.

Yeongyang Ilwol Elementary School, after introducing the small school free school district system last year, has been operating exemplary programs such as reading works by local literary figures like Jo Ji-hoon, Oh Il-do, and Lee Mun-yeol to cultivate humanities sensibility, teacher-student family programs, yoga, learning kalimba, and joint remote classes between schools.

Seongju Surun Middle School was selected for the small school cultivation project last year and has been operating various student autonomous clubs such as gayageum, haegeum, daegeum, pungmulnori (traditional Korean percussion), baduk (Go), woodworking, weekend sports classes, reading classes, coding classes, pet clubs, band clubs, and theater clubs.

Superintendent Lim Jong-sik stated, "Small schools enable future-oriented customized education and serve as a pillar to prevent village extinction in regions like Gyeongbuk, which have many rural and fishing villages. We will actively support maximizing the advantages and compensating for the disadvantages of small schools to foster small but strong schools that children voluntarily seek out."

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