Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education Provides Annual 2.5 Million KRW Free Education and Meal Benefits to 'All High School Students'

Plan to Provide Free Meals for 1st Year High School Students Moved Up by One Year... Completion of Free Meals for All Elementary, Middle, and High Schools

The photo shows Daegu Superintendent of Education Kang Eun-hee and Kim Myung-joong, President of EBS (Korea Educational Broadcasting System), signing a non-face-to-face business agreement on December 23 last year to promote AI, software education, and media education. Photo by Kang Eun-hee

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] Starting this year, all high school students in the Daegu area will receive comprehensive free education. Including free school meals, each student will benefit by about 2.5 million KRW annually.

Additionally, from the new semester, 1st and 2nd-year high school students will also receive free school meals, completing the roadmap for universal free school meals across all schools in Daegu, which began four years ago with upper elementary grades (4th to 6th grade).

On the 1st, the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education announced that from this year, about 60,000 public and private high school students in the region will receive full free education, and all elementary, middle, and high school students will benefit from free school meals.

Free high school education in Daegu started with 3rd-year students in the 2019 academic year and has now expanded to all grades this year. Accordingly, tuition fees, school operation support fees, and textbook costs are fully waived, reducing parents' financial burden by about 1.8 million KRW per high school student annually.

The total budget for free high school education is 110.3 billion KRW. The Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education covers 52.4 billion KRW (47.5%), Daegu City 4.3 billion KRW (3.9%), and the Ministry of Education 53.6 billion KRW (48.6%).

However, autonomous private high schools where tuition is set by the principal (Gyeseong High School, Daegun High School), students admitted to Gyeongil Girls' High School before its conversion to a general high school (3rd-year students in 2021), and students attending Gyeongbuk Arts High School are excluded from the program.

Furthermore, the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education has advanced the implementation of free school meals, which was planned to be gradually expanded from 3rd-year high school students in 2020 to 2nd-year in 2021 and 1st-year in 2022, by one year. The annual meal cost per high school student is about 710,000 KRW.

Thus, universal free school meals for elementary, middle, and high schools have been completed. The Office of Education began free school meals for 4th to 6th graders in elementary school in 2017 and accelerated the process after Superintendent Kang Eun-hee took office in 2018, achieving full free school meals within five years.

Superintendent Kang Eun-hee stated, "With the realization of free high school education and free school meals for elementary, middle, and high schools, we hope to provide some relief to families struggling due to COVID-19," adding, "We will continue to provide equitable educational opportunities and realize inclusive education that leaves no child behind."