Gwanak District Mayor Park Jun-hee Restarts 'Gwanakcheong(聽) Visiting Schools' in the With-Corona Era

Following 28 schools in the first half, plans for communication meetings with 10 schools in the second half... 1 billion KRW included in the September supplementary budget for 'Education Expense Subsidies,' expanding the subsidy to 6 billion KRW

Park Jun-hee, Mayor of Gwanak District, is delivering a greeting at Gwanak Office held at Inheon High School on the 9th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) has resumed the ‘Gwanakcheong Visiting Schools’ program to listen to diverse and vivid voices from schools, and will operate it until December 3.

The district has prioritized resident communication and cooperation as core values of district administration, attentively listening to residents’ voices through ‘Gwanakcheong,’ the nation’s first cafe-style mayor’s office, ‘Online Gwanakcheong,’ which is open 365 days a year, and ‘Mobile Gwanakcheong,’ which tours all neighborhoods.

Among these, ‘Gwanakcheong Visiting Schools’ is a program where the mayor directly visits schools to meet with school officials, school operation committees, and parents’ associations who wish to participate, to discuss school-related issues. This program started in April.

Although temporarily suspended due to the spread of COVID-19 and the implementation of social distancing level 4, the program was resumed this month in line with the phased return to normal life, reflecting parents’ requests to meet the mayor directly and the district’s commitment to communication with residents.

The second half of the year’s ‘Gwanakcheong Visiting Schools’ began on the 9th at Inheon High School and will be conducted at 10 schools that applied for participation.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the district plans to hold on-site discussions where the mayor listens directly to parents’ voices without the attendance of department heads, and personally responds in detail to suggestions or questions.

In the first half of this year, ‘Gwanakcheong Visiting Schools’ toured 28 elementary, middle, and high schools in the region, heard a total of 216 suggestions, and immediately implemented 89 of them after consultation with relevant departments, excluding those difficult to resolve legally or institutionally.

Major initiatives include providing 1.6 billion KRW in educational expense subsidies to 28 schools including Gwangsin Broadcasting Arts High School, installing protective fences in school zones such as in front of Inheon Elementary School, parking enforcement and guidance during school hours at eight schools including Nambu Elementary School, deciding to support the construction of a futsal field at Seoul Tourism High School and a VR sports classroom at Inheon Elementary School, and sidewalk maintenance on Nangok-ro 24ga-gil.

Additionally, reflecting parents’ opinions on the need for school environment improvement support in the region, the district allocated 1 billion KRW in the September supplementary budget for ‘Educational Expense Subsidies,’ expanding the subsidy scale from 1.5 billion KRW in 2018 to 6 billion KRW this year.

A district official said, “Although we did not miss opportunities to communicate with residents despite social distancing, there were some limitations, which was regrettable. As the phased return to normal life begins, we will continue to create opportunities for vivid and diverse exchanges of opinions in the education field.”

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