HANAM — The city of Hanam in Gyeonggi Province and the Gwangju-Hanam Office of Education have made the priority separation and opening of a Hanam Education Support Office an official task under a cooperation agreement. The aim is to remove barriers between local governments and education authorities in resolving regional issues.
Hanam said on the 9th that it signed a policy agreement on mutual cooperation with the Gwangju-Hanam Office of Education at a "barrier-breaking" cooperation ceremony held at the sports center gymnasium of Wondong Elementary School in Osan. The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education and all 31 cities and counties in the province took part.
The agreement was pursued to build a cooperative framework for addressing local education issues, moving beyond the notion that education is the exclusive domain of schools and education offices. Attendees included Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Ahn Min-seok, Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin and Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae, along with the mayors and county chiefs of the province's 31 municipalities and 25 local education superintendents.
Hanam Mayor Lee Hyun-jae delivered the sole congratulatory address on behalf of the heads of the province's 31 basic local governments. The city said this reflected its administrative record, including the establishment of a new middle school through a free lease of park land, the advance securing of a temporary building for an education support office, and annual education funding of 2.1 billion won.
"To ease overcrowded classrooms, Hanam provided a free lease of city-owned park land worth 80 billion won, leading to the opening of Hanhol Middle School in March this year," Lee said. "We have prepared a 150-pyeong temporary office on the sixth floor of the comprehensive welfare town near Hanam City Hall Station, fully equipped so that work could begin immediately as soon as a sign is hung, even tomorrow." He added that "the establishment of the Hanam Education Support Office is the most urgent immediate task for Hanam's 330,000 residents and parents."
At a plenary session of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council on the 3rd, Superintendent Ahn said of plans to split six combined education support offices in the province: "We cannot create all six at the same time, and Hanam and Yangju are the best prepared." He added that "because constructing buildings takes time, the priority is to secure space that can be used as soon as a sign is hung and to support education suited to each area."
Through the agreement, Hanam and the Gwangju-Hanam Office of Education will also join the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education's "Phone-Free School" initiative and Hanam's RAS — reading, arts and sports — character education program. Since the start of the eighth popularly elected local government, the city has invested about 2.1 billion won a year in signature programs providing two musical instruments and one sport per student.
The two bodies plan to combine their resources to establish Hanam as a leading model city for the Phone-Free and RAS programs in the province.
The two sides agreed to jointly pursue 11 tasks. Along with the priority opening of the Hanam Education Support Office and the model city plan, they include sharing school and community infrastructure; pursuing joint school districts with neighboring local governments to ease overcrowded classrooms in the Wirye and Gamil new towns; building two school complex facilities including swimming pools; and continuing and expanding the operation of five student shuttle buses.
"Children's education is not the responsibility of education offices or schools alone but a task the entire community must share," Lee said. "For the barrier-breaking cooperation policy to be carried out systematically, an independent Hanam Education Support Office must open on a priority basis within this year."
