Transition to a 'Sustainable Learning Society' in the COVID Era
Establishing a Lifelong Learning System Where Education Drives Community Change
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City, designated as a lifelong learning city in 2003, presented a new vision for lifelong learning on the 10th.
Suncheon City was designated as a lifelong learning city in 2003, established a national-level lifelong learning organization in 2004, and proactively built infrastructure for promoting lifelong learning such as enacting lifelong learning ordinances, winning the first National Lifelong Learning City Award.
In particular, Suncheon City took a step ahead of other cities by opening the Suncheon Cultural Health Center in 2011, establishing an independent infrastructure for lifelong learning, and offering the largest variety of courses nationwide, earning recognition for providing systematic and stable lifelong education to its citizens.
The year 2023, when the Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo will be held after 10 years, marks the 20th anniversary of the lifelong learning city.
The city is preparing for a new leap forward based on a learning oasis that reflects the significance of creating groundbreaking changes every 10 years and presents new values.
◇ Turning Crisis into Opportunity, Learning Must Continue Despite COVID-19: ‘Sustainable Learning Society’
▶ Establishment and Operation of Suncheon e-Class Center for Non-face-to-face Lifelong Education
In the first half of 2020, which no one could have predicted, Suncheon City suspended the operation of its citizen university due to the spread of COVID-19.
From the second half of the year, the city comforted the disheartened instructors by holding instructor schools to teach online lecture techniques and transitioned fully to an online citizen university, becoming a support pillar for citizens and instructors during the COVID-19 crisis.
This led to the creation of ‘Suncheon e-Class,’ where citizens can participate as online instructors to create lecture content and communicate non-face-to-face through live broadcasts.
To operate this successfully, young online coordinators have been trained since December last year.
They are expected to play the role of digital literacy experts for citizens by assisting in the production and operation of non-face-to-face lecture content.
▶ Operation of Suncheon Everyone’s School through Connection, Cooperation, and Education
Due to the spread of COVID-19, there is a demand to shift from city-level gatherings to small-scale village-level meetings.
The city plans to discover idle spaces at the village level and disperse the previously centralized and scaled lifelong learning programs at the lifelong learning center to operate them as ‘Suncheon Everyone’s School.’
‘Suncheon Everyone’s School’ is a village-level learning space linked with local activities, aiming for decentralization of lifelong education and development of community-linked curricula by placing village activists, enabling both online and offline education.
This year, through the Life SOC project, the newly renovated Women’s Cultural Center will be equipped with a small library, community spaces, and a community kitchen, establishing itself as an educational hub in the new urban area.
The current lifelong learning center will gradually reduce direct hobby and cultural lectures and strengthen its role as an educational linker cooperating with the local community.
▶ In the With-COVID Era, Raising Regional Social Issues through Open Academies
Suncheon City has presented ‘Establishing a Regional Win-Win Lifelong Learning System through Cooperation with Civil Society’ as the most important lifelong education agenda this year.
The Suncheon Love Academy, which used to invite famous lecturers from various fields and conduct large-scale special lectures, is now difficult to operate.
The city will boldly break away from the existing operation method and change to a format where citizen panels participate by theme?such as local autonomy, urban regeneration, social economy, climate crisis, and local figures?to communicate and discuss with lecturers.
Although gatherings are small, the city plans to share widely with more citizens online, raising issues on local matters and creating a continuous public forum.
In the long term, the city plans to transform the operation method to create a cooperative structure with the local community led by civil society with expertise in each area.
◇ Establishing a Lifelong Learning System Leading Regional Change with Education as the Denominator for the Era’s Role of Lifelong Education
▶ Suncheon-type 3E Lifelong Education Hub with Education as the Denominator
Lifelong education, which began to resolve learning exclusion and aimed at individual self-realization, has now become widespread nationwide.
Lifelong education has played many roles in enabling any citizen to learn what they want.
However, there is also criticism that lifelong education remains only at the level of hobbies and cultural enrichment.
In today’s complex and diverse society where citizens’ daily lives are intertwined with multifaceted problems, the era’s role of lifelong education is expanding beyond guaranteeing individual learning rights to ‘cultivating democratic citizens’ who solve local problems together.
It is time to consider education as an integrated force inducing regional change through a holistic approach including children, adolescents, youth, and adults beyond adult education.
Suncheon City plans to build a ‘Suncheon-type Education Hub’ based on the 3E project innovation strategy, which specializes in regional economy (Economy) based on education (Education) and ecology (Ecology), enabling education to function as a growth engine for the city.
▶ Focus on Developing Localized Curricula and Revitalizing Village Education Communities
The Suncheon Grassroots Education Autonomy Cooperation Center, established based on cooperation among the private sector, Suncheon City, and Suncheon Education Support Office, has been promoting a village education community movement that connects village education, which has grown on the basis of autonomy and learning, to school curricula.
Last year, various curricula themed on local ecology, culture, and history, such as Dongcheon Village Curriculum and Railroad Village Curriculum, were developed and connected to school education.
By operating the monthly Education People’s Assembly ‘Jeongdamhoe,’ diverse educational proposals from citizens are linked to policies.
In particular, the city is comprehensively restructuring local education expenses and expanding the scope beyond education to include care, resident autonomy, and urban regeneration through linkage.
▶ Selected for Multi-Ministry Policy Linkage Project, Establishing a Cooperative System by Removing Barriers between Departments and Fields
On the 5th, Suncheon City was selected for a multi-ministry policy linkage public contest jointly conducted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and two other ministries.
As a future education district designated by the Ministry of Education, Suncheon plans to implement linkage among multi-ministry policies such as urban regeneration and integrated care.
The city will decentralize and expand the city-level Jeongdamhoe model to village-level residents’ autonomy councils as village assemblies where any citizen can propose policies, and establish a policy linkage working committee involving residents, experts, and officials from various fields to link and support diverse areas with education.
▶ Hosting the 7th Korea Lifelong Learning Expo Presenting the Era’s Role and Vision of Lifelong Learning
The 7th Korea Lifelong Learning Expo will be held in Suncheon this October.
Postponed last year due to COVID-19, the city plans to prepare thoroughly to provide a festival and learning venue for lifelong learners nationwide.
Suncheon City aims to use this expo as a new turning point for lifelong learning, which faced a crisis due to COVID-19, and plans to prepare a ‘Learning Declaration’ presenting the vision of lifelong learning in Korea, centered on 177 lifelong learning cities nationwide.
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