Operation of ‘Gangdong Afterschool’ for Middle and High School Students' Learning, Career, and College Admission Consulting

Gangdong-gu Operates 'Gangdong Afterschool' Supporting Entire Learning, Career, and Admission Process to Alleviate Educational Gaps and Psychological Anxiety Caused by COVID-19

Gangdong-gu conducted capacity-building training last May for university students participating in the Gangdong Afterschool Support Group and the Edu Volunteer Group.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gangdong-gu (Mayor Jeonghoon Lee) is operating the ‘2020 Gangdong Afterschool’ program, which provides consulting on learning, career, and college admission for middle and high school students to address the growing educational gap caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, as the proportion of remote classes has increased due to COVID-19, the educational gap based on school or individual learning environments has deepened.

Additionally, emotional and psychological anxiety among students and parents has also increased.

In response, Gangdong-gu is running ‘Gangdong Afterschool,’ which supports learning and career counseling, self-introduction letter writing, and interview consulting for middle and high school students from low-income households.

Since opening in April last year, Gangdong Afterschool provided 1,016 consulting sessions to 51 students from 14 schools until July this year, receiving positive feedback.

This Gangdong Afterschool program will operate from September, with selected middle and high school students recommended by schools and institutions participating. A group of university student mentors and local education experts called the Edu Volunteer Group will serve as instructors, providing learning mentoring, learning, career, and college admission counseling, as well as self-introduction letter and interview consulting. A preliminary survey on preferred subjects and other factors was conducted to enhance the program’s composition.

To provide customized support for each student, the district plans to operate face-to-face consulting in one-on-one or small group formats. To prevent COVID-19, real-time online classes using the Gangdong remote learning platform, phone calls, and FaceTalk will also be actively utilized as non-face-to-face methods.

Jeonghoon Lee, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, said, “To eliminate the educational gap caused by COVID-19, we have diversified the operation methods of Gangdong Afterschool and enhanced the content. We will systematically manage the entire process of learning, career, and college admission to guarantee students’ right to learn and support their psychological stability.”