Broadcast Company's YouTube Views Surpass 1.52 Million
Over 80 Parent Households Also Call for Inquiries
There is a flood of transfer inquiries to Hongdo Branch School in Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, which is facing the risk of closure. This follows the announcement that 3.2 million KRW per month will be provided to families who transfer.
On the 30th, Sinan-gun announced that following recent media reports about providing accommodation and jobs worth 3.2 million KRW per month to parents of students enrolling or transferring to Hongdo Branch School, phone inquiries from parents nationwide have been pouring in.
The YouTube video from a broadcasting company sharing this story has already surpassed 1.52 million views. Additionally, over 80 households of parents from across the country, including Donghae City in Gangwon-do, have called to inquire about transfers. Sinan-gun plans to initially recruit 4 households on a pilot basis from among the applicants. To ensure these families can live comfortably on Hongdo, four residential spaces with two or more rooms and good living conditions will also be prepared.
The primary selection criteria will be families with many elementary school children, and if conditions are the same, families with more lower-grade students will be prioritized. Once the residential spaces are ready, Sinan-gun will invite 12 households?three times the number of the initially selected 4 families?to Hongdo to hold an orientation about school and housing facilities. Park Woo-ryang, the mayor of Sinan-gun, said, "Given the explosive interest confirmed by the Hongdo Branch School case, we plan to expand this policy to Heuksan main island and nearby small island schools."
Hongdo is a natural protected area (Natural Monument No. 170), located 107 km from Mokpo, and takes 2 hours and 40 minutes by high-speed ferry. Currently, about 500 people live on Hongdo.
Heuksan Elementary School Hongdo Branch, opened in 1949, now has only three 6th-grade students left after 74 years since its establishment, and faces closure next year. In response, Sinan-gun has held several consultations with Hongdo residents to devise measures to save the branch school. The measures proposed by the county and residents include ▲providing accommodation and jobs worth 3.2 million KRW per month to parents of students enrolling or transferring to the small island school (Hongdo Branch) ▲providing an annual Sunlight Child Allowance of 400,000 KRW per child (increasing to 800,000 KRW from 2024) ▲job placement and provision for mothers of enrolled and transferred students.
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