Why Does Gumi Wondang Elementary School See an Increase of 100 Students Every Year?

Influx from Nearby Daegwa Schools

'Operating a Distinctive Curriculum'

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education (Superintendent Lim Jong-sik) announced on the 8th that Gumi Wondang Elementary School, a Gyeongbuk Hope School, has achieved outstanding results with the number of students increasing by 100 each year in its second year of operation.

Gyeongbuk Hope Schools are policy schools that solve the problem of school overcrowding by encouraging voluntary dispersion of education demand from nearby overcrowded schools through operating distinctive future-oriented curricula at schools with low student capacity rates.

A distinctive class scene at Gumi Wondang Elementary School, designated as a Gyeongbuk Hope School.

The Gyeongbuk Office of Education selected one school, Gumi Wondang Elementary School, as a Gyeongbuk Hope School in 2021 through a public contest targeting schools with idle classrooms near overcrowded schools with over 1,000 students. After a six-month preparation period, it has been designated and operated for five years from the 2022 academic year to 2027.

Gumi Wondang Elementary School, which has been operating as a Gyeongbuk Hope School for two years, has effectively attracted 100 students each year from nearby overcrowded schools with over 1,000 students.

In particular, Gumi Wondang Elementary School has established four strategies: student-centered future-oriented education operation, student individual customized career choice-based education operation, community exchange and cultivation of communal values education operation, and establishment of a curriculum-centered autonomous school operation system, creating an educational environment that attracts students and parents and carrying out educational activities.

As a result of operating a distinctive future-oriented curriculum, the school has achieved excellent results not only in student influx but also by being selected as the best school at the 17th Education Informatization Research Competition and receiving the 2023 After-School Program Minister of Education Commendation, among other achievements in various educational fields.

Also, as the first Gyeongbuk Hope School, it has devoted all efforts to creating a public education model that attracts parents through various incentives such as the student-generated curriculum conference, operating booths at the lesson sharing festival, and sharing cases and research results of student-centered future-oriented curriculum operation.

Lim Jong-sik, Superintendent of Gyeongbuk Office of Education, said, “We will nurture Gyeongbuk Hope Schools into schools that attract students and parents by establishing future-oriented curriculum operation and individualized customized education systems considering local and school conditions. We will spare no support to resolve the issue of urban depopulation through successful operation and to establish them as future-oriented model schools.”

Starting with Gumi Wondang Elementary School in 2022, the Gyeongbuk Office of Education additionally selected Pohang Hangdo Middle School as a Gyeongbuk Hope School this year.