Gyeongbuk Office of Education to Completely Remove Asbestos from 1,430 Schools by Winter 2025... Two Years Ahead of Schedule

On the 25th, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education announced that it will accelerate the complete removal of asbestos by the winter vacation of 2025, two years ahead of the Ministry of Education's original plan, to protect students from harmful environments.

As of May, the asbestos removal rate in 1,430 kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools in the Gyeongbuk region is about 80%. With a goal of achieving an 87% asbestos removal rate by February 2024, a budget of 36.6 billion KRW has been allocated this year, and more than 30 billion KRW will be invested annually until 2025 to achieve asbestos-free schools.

The removal of asbestos at an elementary school in the Gyeongbuk region.

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education operates an ‘Asbestos Monitoring Team’ to strengthen management and supervision functions during the dismantling and removal of asbestos in school facilities, and to establish a monitoring system that ensures reliability and safety.

When the amount of asbestos dismantled exceeds 50㎡, the Asbestos Monitoring Team, consisting of 7 to 9 or more members including school principals, supervisors, external experts, civic groups, and parents depending on the scale, plays a crucial role by attending pre-briefing sessions, checking the appropriateness of moving furniture, pre-cleaning, and sealing with plastic sheets, conducting frequent monitoring, and participating in residue investigations at least five times.

Although the Gyeongbuk Office of Education faced difficulties as it could not provide allowances or compensation to participants such as parents and environmental groups actively involved in the Asbestos Monitoring Team, the system was improved last month to allow payment of allowances, which is expected to enable smoother operation of the program going forward.

Lim Jong-sik, Superintendent of Education of Gyeongbuk, stated, “We will promptly resolve various issues arising during the asbestos dismantling process and provide students with a safer and more comfortable educational environment through early asbestos removal by 2025.”

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