Gyeongnam Office of Education to Eliminate All Asbestos in Provincial Schools by 2027

This Year, 130 Billion KRW Budget Allocated, 65% Removal Target Set

Gyeongnam Office of Education.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] The Gyeongnam Office of Education plans to completely remove asbestos from schools by 2027.

The Office of Education will invest 526.5 billion KRW by 2027 in the school asbestos removal project, which is being promoted to protect the health and safety of students and staff.

The asbestos removal project is carried out during summer and winter vacations when students and staff are not present, and to block asbestos exposure that may occur during or after demolition, an asbestos removal monitoring team composed of schools, external experts, parents, environmental organizations, and supervisors is operating.

According to the Gyeongnam Office of Education, since conducting a preliminary asbestos survey of all schools in the province in 2015, asbestos removal projects have been carried out annually, and as of March this year, 1,690,471㎡, which is 54% of the total 3,120,544㎡, has been removed.

The Office of Education plans to secure a total of 130 billion KRW by increasing the first supplementary budget to 80 billion KRW from the original 50 billion KRW budget this year, removing 349,701㎡ in 3,809 rooms across 185 schools in the province, achieving an asbestos removal rate of 65%.

An official stated that the budgeting method was improved to focus investment on the asbestos removal project.

"Since the environmental improvement project budget allocated to each city and county education support office was used to execute various facility improvement projects including asbestos removal, it was difficult to make concentrated investments," he said. "The provincial Office of Education changed the method to separately allocate the budget for the asbestos removal project."

Park Jonghwan, head of the Facilities Division, said, "We will carry out the asbestos removal project to protect the health and safety of students and staff without delay, and do our best to ensure transparency during the demolition process and to clean up safely."

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