Installation of School Complex Facilities in 229 Local Governments Nationwide... "Providing Diverse Educational Environments"

Ministry of Education to Announce 'School Complex Facility Revitalization Plan' on 17th
Customized Complex Facilities Considering Regional and School Characteristics
1.8 Trillion KRW of Local Education Finance Grants to Be Invested Over 5 Years

School complex facilities will be installed in all schools nationwide to operate various after-school programs.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Education held a Social Relations Ministers' Meeting and announced the "Plan to Revitalize School Complex Facilities," which includes these measures. This plan is a key reform task in the education sector and is being promoted in connection with the "Neulbom School" education reform task announced by the Ministry of Education in January this year.

An official from the Ministry of Education explained, "In a situation where excessive private education expenses are pointed out as a cause of low birth rates, we plan to prioritize the installation of various school complex facilities in Neulbom Schools and actively support the operation of after-school programs."

First, the Ministry of Education plans to support the installation so that one or more school complex facilities can be operated at the level of all local governments.

To this end, among the 229 basic local governments nationwide, the project will be promoted to prioritize the installation of school complex facilities in 142 areas where such facilities have not been installed, by holding a public contest for 40 schools annually over five years, totaling 200 schools. Selected schools will be required to review the installation of multipurpose rooms, creative activity spaces, swimming pools, and gymnasiums to enable linkage between school complex facilities and after-school programs.

The Ministry of Education plans to consider the 214 Neulbom Schools that were piloted in February as the top priority project target, and prioritize schools where the demand for Neulbom Schools and regional demand coincide, as well as those linked with care and education-related ministries' public contests and support projects.

In particular, various facilities will be supported to diversify programs, such as building digital infrastructure capable of operating after-school programs in new industry fields with high demand for future society, including AI, coding, big data, and drones. Additionally, a "hub-type care center" will be supported to serve as a regional care hub where students from nearby schools can jointly participate in programs linked with the community in culture, arts, and sports.

Child-friendly facilities such as floor heating, washbasins, and safety devices for lower-grade elementary students will be created in care facilities within school complex facilities to meet the safety demands of parents. Furthermore, spaces will be prepared within school complex facilities to systematically support Neulbom Schools, including spaces for the "After-School Neulbom Support Center."

Moreover, the Ministry of Education plans to develop specialized plans for school complex facilities considering regional characteristics for middle and high schools, as well as universities, in addition to school complex facilities supporting Neulbom Schools.

The new town type will promote financial efficiency by linking community plans from the planning stage of new school establishment, the old downtown type will lead the role of urban hubs by creating convenience facilities for residents in idle spaces due to urban hollowing, and the rural and fishing village type will improve residential conditions by creating regional public, cultural, and welfare infrastructure as village hub facilities at schools.

To encourage local governments' participation in the project, the Ministry of Education will support part of the installation costs invested by local governments with local education finance grants. The support scale is 360 billion KRW annually, totaling 1.8 trillion KRW. In particular, to enable participation from financially poor local governments, the support scale will be expanded according to the financial independence of local governments, providing differentiated support up to 30% of the total installation cost. Some of the management and operation costs, which have been obstacles to participating in the school complex facility project, will also be supported by local education finance grants, and related legal amendments will be pursued for this purpose.

The management and operation rights of the complex facilities will be granted to local government heads to clarify management and operation responsibilities, and administrative procedures such as exemption from the Ministry of Education's central investment review will be simplified. Personnel support will also be provided to alleviate the burden of school complex facility-related tasks. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) will be applied to all school complex facilities to spatially and temporally separate students and residents, and students' safety will be prioritized by utilizing remote integrated control systems through local government collaboration.

To establish a cooperative system among related organizations at the early stage of the project, the Ministry of Education will take the lead in discovering and supporting memorandums of understanding (MOUs) between related organizations, and a professional support organization will provide comprehensive support for field tasks such as demand surveys, project planning, and MOUs. Along with this, the Ministry plans to actively promote the priority establishment of school complex facilities at glocal universities so that regional universities can play a central role in regional development and build a virtuous cycle structure where universities and regions coexist.

The Ministry of Education will hold a project briefing session next month to promote the public contest project and plans to finalize the project by September after the contest begins in May.

Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, said, "In a situation where the gap between regions is widening and regional extinction is feared due to low birth rates and aging, it is important to provide various educational environments to nurture students' talents and abilities," adding, "It is necessary for related ministries, local governments, and local communities to show active interest and support so that the nation can take responsibility for education and care by revitalizing school complex facilities."

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