[News Terms] Can 'Autonomous Public High School 2.0' Be a Solution to the Local Extinction Crisis?

Among the 40 schools selected in the first round of the Ministry of Education's newly launched 'Autonomous Public High School 2.0' project this year, local governments have shown high interest in applying for the second round of the competition, which runs until the end of this month. The aim is to respond to the risk of regional extinction by expanding the resident population through improving the educational environment.

As the name suggests, an autonomous public high school refers to a public high school designated and announced to operate the school or curriculum autonomously when the superintendent of education recognizes it as necessary for the improvement and development of the education system. The open-type autonomous schools, piloted since 2007, were expanded into autonomous public high schools, and Autonomous Public High School 1.0 officially began in 2009.

The biggest difference between Autonomous Public High School 2.0 and 1.0 is that schools sign agreements with various local entities such as local governments, universities, and companies to innovate the curriculum. Accordingly, specialized programs in humanities, social sciences, science, and artificial intelligence (AI) can be operated by utilizing the human and material resources possessed by the partner institutions.

Additionally, schools are granted autonomy equivalent to that of autonomous private high schools and specialized high schools in their curriculum, allowing them to independently design the curriculum and academic calendar. To support diverse and creative curriculum operation, the education office provides human resource support such as the principal recruitment system, inviting up to 100% of the teaching staff, and permitting additional teacher assignments. However, student selection is conducted according to each education office's system, similar to general public high schools.

Moreover, the Ministry of Education provides 200 million KRW annually for five years to schools designated as Autonomous Public High School 2.0. In addition, besides the existing school operating expenses, additional financial support from the Ministry of Education's matching investments, partner institutions, and local governments is also possible.

Meanwhile, high schools currently preparing for the second phase of the Autonomous Public High School 2.0 project include Uijeongbu High School, Uijeongbu Girls' High School, Wongok High School, and Gangjin High School. Earlier, the Ministry of Education selected and announced 40 schools as Autonomous Public High School 2.0 on February 29, in connection with the first selection competition for the Education Development Special Zone. Among them, except for two schools in the metropolitan area (Gunpo Jungang High School and Paju Unjeong High School in Gyeonggi Province), all 38 schools are located outside the metropolitan area. Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education had the highest number with 11 schools (27.5%) out of the total 40.

By region, Jang-an High School in Busan, which signed an agreement with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, operates a science-focused curriculum. In Jeonnam, three schools?Naju High School in the old downtown, and Bonghwang High School and Maesung High School located in the innovation city?have formed a consortium to jointly develop and operate curricula in the fields of power, semiconductors, information security, and K-content. To this end, they signed agreements with local institutions such as KEPCO, Korea Energy Engineering University, Korea Internet & Security Agency, and Korea Creative Content Agency. Gongju High School, partnered with Gongju City in Chungnam, plans to create humanities and cultural arts curricula, international history and cultural exchange programs, and also introduce the IB curriculum.