Gyeonggi-do Provides 92.8 Billion KRW to Alleviate Overcrowded Classes

Gyeonggi Provincial Government Gwanggyo New Office Building

Gyeonggi Province will provide additional support for 'school expansion expenses' in addition to 'school site acquisition costs' this year to alleviate overcrowded classes in elementary, middle, and high schools within the province.

The province announced on the 15th that it will support a total of 92.8 billion KRW this year, including 80.8 billion KRW for school site acquisition costs and 12 billion KRW for school expansion expenses to resolve overcrowded classes.

The school site charge is an expense collected from project implementers by the provincial governor or city/county heads to secure school sites for development projects or, if securing a school site is not possible, to expand nearby schools.

This year, the province will support school site acquisition expenses for 31 schools in 15 cities and counties. It will allocate school site acquisition costs to 15 schools in 9 cities and counties, and school expansion costs to 16 schools in 11 cities and counties.

The decision to support school expansion expenses was made to address the issue of overcrowded classes. As of the end of December last year, 1,116 out of 2,468 schools in the province, or 45.2%, were overcrowded schools.

This is due to population inflow in new towns where large-scale apartment complex development projects are underway. Additionally, the Ministry of Education lowered the overcrowded class standard to 28 students or more per class in 2021, which further increased the proportion of overcrowded schools.

The province plans to support school expansion expenses if development projects currently underway cause overcrowded classes in nearby schools.

Kim Hyang-sook, Director of the Lifelong Education Bureau of the province, emphasized, "We will do our best to create a pleasant and safe educational environment by communicating and cooperating with related organizations in various ways to establish the foundation for school establishment early and ensure timely resolution of overcrowded classes."