Gangwon Provincial Office of Education Announces 2026 Operation Plan to Promote Reading and Humanities Education

Linking Curriculum, Expanding School Autonomy
Fostering Thinking Skills and Capacity for Coexistence

On February 10, the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education announced the "2026 Operation Plan for Promoting Reading and Humanities Education" to respond to the era of artificial intelligence by strengthening school-centered reading and humanities education in 2026, with the aim of cultivating students' thinking skills, expressive abilities, and capacity for coexistence.

Exterior view of the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education.

The 2026 reading and humanities education policy sets its core directions as close linkage with the curriculum, expansion of school autonomy, and reinforcement of student-participation-centered programs. It will support the creation of "schools that read, classrooms that communicate" so that reading and humanities activities can take place naturally within regular classroom instruction.

The office will continue to promote the "One Book per Semester" initiative, linked with the curriculum from the third year of elementary school through the second year of high school, so that reading experiences by grade and by subject can be systematically accumulated and expanded.

It will also support schools so they can autonomously select and operate a "One School, One Reading and Humanities Program" that reflects each school’s conditions and characteristics, thereby creating a school-autonomy-based environment for reading and humanities education.

Through a variety of participatory programs, including fostering a culture of schools that read, operating leading schools for class-centered reading education, the Gangwon Reading Debate Festival, the Ping-Pong Biblio Battle, and publishing student-created books, the office plans to expand reading and humanities education in which students actively participate and think for themselves.

In addition, to strengthen the practical capacity for reading and humanities education in which the educational community reads together, communicates, and expands learning, the office will support communities that put reading education into practice and build a foundation for a reading culture in cooperation with local communities.

The office will systematically strengthen teachers' capacity to implement reading education through training and case-sharing on One Book per Semester, debates, writing, and the use of and collaboration with school libraries in classes, as well as by supporting subject-based reading instruction and teacher learning communities for reading education.

By operating regional councils for reading education, it will build regional cooperation networks for reading and humanities, and promote distinctive, region-centered reading education through analysis of the current status of regional reading and humanities education and exploration of support measures. It will also jointly plan reading events and programs with local communities to support schools in the field.

Lee Inbeom, Director of the Department of Culture, Physical Education and Special Education, said, "Reading is not just a tool for acquiring knowledge, but a foundation for forming one's perspective on the world," adding, "In 2026, we will actively support students so that, through the processes of reading and writing, they can develop self-directed learning capabilities and grow into future talents equipped with humanistic literacy that enables them to coexist with others."

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