Mandatory Consent from School Members for the Groundbreaking of the 'Green Smart Mirae School'

Selection of 518 Project Sites in 2022
Strengthened Criteria to Obtain Consent from School Members Regarding Project Application, Safety Management, and Learning Rights Guarantee
Application of Construction Supervision and Inspection Standards Exceeding Legal Requirements

The Ministry of Education is breaking ground this year on the 'Green Smart Future School' project, which involves expanding and renovating schools that are over 40 years old. Starting this year, the ministry will strengthen related procedures to ensure that the consent of school members is always obtained when applying for the project and determining safety management and learning rights protection measures. This is to prevent repeating past cases where projects were withdrawn due to parental opposition after being carried out without consent.

On the 12th, the Ministry of Education announced the '2022 Green Smart Future School Promotion Plan' and revealed that 518 buildings will be selected as project targets this year. The budget for this year includes 519.4 billion KRW in national funds and 1.3 trillion KRW in local funds.

The Ministry requires that the consent of school members be obtained during decision-making processes such as future school applications, user-participatory design, safety management during construction, and learning rights protection measures. For members who cannot participate in discussions, related information must be posted on the website, and the overall project status, including the project period and purpose, must be continuously shared with school members. Previously, obtaining consent from school members was only recommended from the application stage, but after 19 schools in Seoul were withdrawn from the project targets, the related standards were strengthened.

By including 'safety' as a core element, the protection of learning rights is also reinforced. During construction, modular classrooms (buildings) will be installed, or idle classrooms or nearby schools will be utilized. Routes for arrival and departure will be separated from construction vehicle access roads, and construction hours will be adjusted or separated by barriers to prevent infringement on learning rights.

A basis for investigating the status of fire facility installations and fire truck access routes will be established, and standards will be revised to allow related measures. Standards for infection disease prevention will be prepared and reflected in the design. Supervision standards for the future school project will be created by type, applying construction supervision standards higher than legal requirements.

An official from the Ministry of Education stated, "We will strictly separate learning spaces during construction and enhance safety so that living in modular classrooms can be more comfortable than regular classrooms." They added, "If installing modular classrooms is difficult, when utilizing idle facilities (classrooms) inside or outside the school, transfers and other matters will be conducted by the school after sufficient prior consultation and obtaining consent from parents."

Last year, the Ministry selected 484 schools as project targets and is promoting design competitions and contracts for schools that have completed preliminary planning, with user-participatory design and construction starting this year. Newly selected schools this year must go through the preliminary planning stage and are required to undergo an appropriateness review of the results. Various workshops involving school members and preliminary planners will be conducted, and online and offline training programs to understand school culture will be operated for the pool of preliminary planners.

10% of the first-year project budget will be invested, with 40% and 50% invested annually over three years. The Ministry of Education will also revamp the future school portal system into the 'Cyber Future School' and simultaneously work on upgrading the system to allow visits to excellent model schools.

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