20th Anniversary Ceremony & Policy Forum of Lifelong Learning City Successfully Held
Geochang-gun, Gyeongnam Province, announced on the 11th that it held the 20th anniversary ceremony and policy forum of Geochang-gun Lifelong Learning City from the 5th to the 7th at the Geochang Culture Center and various locations in Geochang-gun.
The ceremony was attended by about 300 people, including County Governor Gu In-mo, Chairman of the Geochang County Council Lee Hong-hee, about 200 lifelong learning officials from Geochang-gun, and 100 lifelong learning scholars and officials from cities, counties, and districts nationwide.
In the first part of the ceremony, the achievements of Geochang-gun over the past 20 years were shared, followed by a proclamation ceremony and performance on the educational direction of Geochang-gun as a future education city and a bigger school where anything is possible, presentation of commemorative plaques, screening of a commemorative video, and congratulatory performances. The second part continued with a policy forum under the theme “Local extinction, education city is the answer,” discussing the reality of living in an era of population extinction and operational plans for education cities and lifelong learning.
During the ceremony, the top 20 lifelong learning city policies were selected as keywords to view lifelong learning in Geochang, providing attendees with a time to share the achievements. Then, appreciation plaques were awarded to 20 lifelong learning officials who cooperated for the development of lifelong learning, cultural dissemination, and a dense network in Geochang-gun, encouraging their efforts so far.
The second part, the policy forum, began with a keynote speech by Professor Lee Hee-soo of Chung-Ang University and a thematic presentation by Professor Heo Joon of Yeungnam University. This was followed by discussions involving Professor Park Sun-kyung of Osan University, Kang Byung-doo, Director of the Lifelong Education Center at Gyeongnam Provincial Geochang College, Kim Yu-mi, Secretary General of the National Lifelong Learning City Council, and Dr. Jeon Ha-young, CEO of Life and Knowledge. The forum was chaired by Lee Won-geun, President of Changshin University.
Professor Lee suggested focusing on two keywords by reading the national agenda, the basic plan for lifelong education promotion, and the implementation system as tasks for the re(leap) of the lifelong learning city Geochang. As keywords to open the local era through lifelong learning cities, he presented the Education Development Special Zone and the RISE project, which is the pinnacle of cooperation among local government, industry, and academia.
Following this, Professor Heo of Yeungnam University gave a presentation titled “Local Extinction and Rural Education: The Truths We Didn’t Know,” discussing signs and hopes for rural education in the era of the population cliff.
Professor Park of Osan University, who participated in the discussion, focused on the revision of the Lifelong Education Act, proposing the establishment of lifelong learning centers in eup, myeon, and dong (township and neighborhood) areas and emphasizing that Geochang-gun’s characteristics require linkage with elementary, middle, and high school education. He highly praised the recent case of adult learners enrolling at Arim High School in Geochang as not only the first in Korea but also the first in the world.
Geochang-gun was the first in Gyeongnam to be selected as a learning city in 2003 and has since spread a lifelong learning culture through about 500 various lifelong education programs and learning clubs annually. In 2016, it hosted the nation’s first county-level expo, joined the International Education Cities Association, operated a global camp in partnership with Stanford University, promoted the Humanities City project, restructured the university lifelong learning system through the LIFE project, and advanced vocational high school education through the HIVE project. It has established itself as a representative learning city in Korea by achieving excellent cases such as 30 adult learners enrolling in general high schools through adult literacy education.
Governor Gu said, “I believe this meaningful forum will serve as a starting point to find clues to solving regional settlement conditions through lifelong learning in the face of the crisis of population and local extinction. I expect it will add great significance to redesigning lifelong learning in Geochang-gun.”
Chairman Lee said in his congratulatory speech, “Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of the lifelong learning city. I believe that the know-how and efforts of lifelong learning over the past 20 years will serve as the foundation for the development of lifelong learning in Geochang-gun for the next 100 years.”
Meanwhile, Geochang-gun is promoting lifelong learning city projects under the theme of “A Bigger School Where Anything Is Possible” and is making every effort to attract the Education Development Special Zone to realize the local era and enhance regional educational competitiveness.
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