Gwangju Buk-gu Selected as an Excellent Lifelong Learning City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Buk-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Moon In) announced on the 16th that it was the only city in Gwangju to be selected as an excellent lifelong learning city in the "Lifelong Learning City Re-designation Evaluation" conducted by the Ministry of Education targeting 42 lifelong learning cities belonging to special and metropolitan cities among 167 lifelong learning cities nationwide.

The re-designation evaluation, conducted for the first time this year, was prepared to verify the capacity and sustainability as a lifelong learning city and evaluated the performance over the past three years from 2017 to 2019.

Buk-gu, designated as a lifelong learning city in 2011, has focused on improving residents' quality of life through projects such as the "Life Learning Center Knee School," which shares retirees' know-how with younger generations, and the "Il·It·So" job-specialized project supporting employment and entrepreneurship for local youth and career-interrupted women.

As a result, it was selected as an excellent lifelong learning city nationwide along with Songpa-gu and Eunpyeong-gu in Seoul, Seo-gu and Yeonje-gu in Busan, and will receive a commendation from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education as well as a prize of 30 million won.

Buk-gu is scheduled to be recommended as a candidate city for the UNESCO Learning City Award at the UNESCO International Learning City Conference to be held in 2021 and will also be promoted as an excellent case.

Mayor Moon In of Buk-gu said, "This selection as an excellent lifelong learning city is the result of active participation by local residents to spread the culture of lifelong learning," and added, "We will continue to create a grassroots lifelong learning culture led by residents through sustainable learning community operations and the development of specialized programs."