Government to Prioritize 'Education Development Special Zones' Starting This Year... Selected Areas to Be Announced This Month

'Local Era Livelihood Package' Education Policy
First Selected Areas Announcement This Month
Includes Neulbom School Expansion, Kindergarten Integration, and More

The government will actively promote the 'Education Development Special Zone,' a region-specific education reform plan, starting this year.

The Presidential Commission on the Local Era held a joint meeting with related ministries on the afternoon of the 13th at Busan Metropolitan City Hall titled "Public Livelihood Discussion: The Eleventh, Busan Opens the Local Era Wide," where they explained this plan.

The Education Development Special Zone is an education reform plan in which local governments and education offices collaborate with regional institutions such as universities and industries to develop customized education development strategies for local residents.

This year, the government will prioritize selecting pilot areas for the Education Development Special Zone. Applications were accepted from December 11 last year until the 9th of this month. Within this month, the Education Development Special Zone Committee will review the applications, and the Local Era Commission will deliberate and decide to announce the selected areas. The second designation will proceed with application and designation procedures from May to July, with results announced at the end of July.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In the first application round, which closed on the 9th, 94 basic local governments and administrative cities (92 basic local governments and 2 administrative cities) from 15 metropolitan cities and provinces participated. The models proposed by each region included plans such as ▲expansion of Neulbom School ▲leading integration of kindergarten and elementary education ▲strengthening public education within the region ▲expanding local talent selection ▲linking multicultural education ▲connecting with local industries.

An official from the Ministry of Education said at a pre-briefing on the day, "Since the application deadline was on the 9th, we are currently organizing the data," adding, "Overall, the evaluation stage has not yet progressed, so it is difficult to provide specific information."

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