Gangwon Office of Education Announces Proactive, Comprehensive Measures to Foster "Even Better Character"

Gangwon Office of Education Announces Comprehensive 2026 "Gangwon Hi(hi) High(high)+2gether" Character Education Initiative
Proactive and Comprehensive Support Measures Established, Including Mental Health Promotion, to Foster Better Character in Students

The Gangwon Provincial Office of Education has announced proactive and comprehensive support measures for 2026 to foster "even better character" among students in Gangwon.

Exterior view of Gangwon Provincial Office of Education. Provided by Gangwon Provincial Office of Education

Building on this year's "Gangwon Hi(hi) High(high) Character Education" program, the office will implement the "Gangwon Hi(hi) High(high)+2gether Character Education" initiative in 2026.

This is a Gangwon-style character education model designed to reduce conflict, prejudice, and discrimination within schools, while promoting character competencies centered on harmony, respect, and consideration, all based on core character values.

As a proactive measure to enhance students' mental health, the office will move beyond its existing "prevention-focused support" and establish an integrated management system to provide a tailored crisis student support framework that reflects regional characteristics.

To achieve this, the office will: strengthen social-emotional education for suicide prevention and mental health promotion; expand support for treatment costs through collaboration with external professional organizations such as Wee Centers, youth counseling and welfare centers, and hospitals and clinics.

In addition, the office will explore mid- to long-term support strategies through research by professional institutions, including the relocation of the family-type Wee Center in the Wonju area and the establishment of a new Wee Center in the Yeongdong region.

Support for school violence administrative procedures and prevention: To enhance the expertise and stability of handling school violence cases, the office will expand the "Our School Lawyer Program."

The "Our School Lawyer Program" strengthens schools' legal response capabilities by providing: legal consultation on school violence and infringements on educational activities; legal advice on overall school administrative procedures; training for staff to protect educational activities; and other school-related legal consultations requested by school principals.

School violence prevention training: To foster a peaceful, violence-free school culture, the office will provide training for parents of new elementary school students.

The training, held for parents whose children will enter elementary school in January 2026, will cover: understanding types and recent trends in school violence; guidance on peer relationships and forming emotional and language habits at home; restorative communication methods and empathetic parent-child communication; and how to respond and cooperate as parents in the event of school violence.

Comprehensive support for safe and active field trips: The office will enhance the safety, educational value, and accessibility of field trips to ensure students have a wide range of experiential opportunities.

The program includes: revising the field trip safety management ordinance to fund additional chaperone staff; amending the ordinance on field trip expenses to temporarily allow the use of budgets for in-school experiential learning and provide additional support for alternative schools; operating a (tentatively named) Field Trip Support Center in the 2026 academic year to provide support staff; expanding safety training for teachers serving as field trip safety officers; and advisory support from the Thematic Learning Travel Support Group.

Song Sugyeong, Director of Character and Life Education, stated, "We will continue to provide proactive and meticulous support to foster even better character in students and create a healthy and safe school culture," adding, "We will spare no effort to provide systematic support so that students can live school lives based on harmony, respect, and consideration for one another."

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