‘Hwacheon-type Elementary All-day Care Model’ Recognized as ‘Best’ by Government

Hwacheon-gun Wins Prime Minister's Award at the 2024 Government Innovation Championship
Hwacheon Community Center, Opened in February, the Only One from Gangwon-do to Reach the Championship
County Governor Choi Moon-soon: "Creating an Environment to Reduce Childcare Burden for Young Couples to Encourage Childbirth"

Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (Governor Choi Moon-soon) announced on the 18th that Hwacheon-gun’s ‘Hwacheon-type All-day Care Model’ was once again recognized as a top-level innovation case nationwide by winning the Silver Prize, the Prime Minister’s Award, at the finals of the ‘2024 Government Innovation Championship’ held on the 14th at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju Metropolitan City.

Exterior view of the Hwacheon Community Center in Hwacheon County, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, which opened in February this year. Photo by Hwacheon County Office

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety discovers excellent government innovation cases every year and shares and spreads them across the entire government. This year, a total of 647 cases were recommended from all central government ministries, local governments, and public institutions, and expert evaluations and online public evaluations were conducted from June. Among the 647 cases, 44 passed the preliminary round, and among them, the 13 cases with the highest scores in the expert evaluation advanced to the championship finals.

Hwacheon-gun was the only local government in the province to advance to the government innovation championship finals and achieved good results. Hwacheon-gun is also the only county-level local government among the finalists.

In February, Hwacheon-gun opened the Hwacheon Community Center, the first local government-operated care facility nationwide. The Hwacheon Community Center received favorable evaluations for going beyond simple care by assigning both domestic and foreign homeroom teachers and providing foreign language, sports, culture and arts, and experiential education to overcome the poor educational environment in the border area.

Students participating in the all-day care class for elementary school students at the 'Hwacheon Community Center,' which opened in February this year, held an English musical presentation in August. Photo by Hwacheon County Office

Since the opening of the Community Center, Hwacheon-gun has been evaluated for establishing a demand-centered customized care system through continuous communication with parents and children. In fact, a satisfaction survey of parents of care classroom students showed that all respondents were satisfied. It was also confirmed through statistics that the childcare burden of dual-income couples was reduced and expenditures on private education such as English academy fees decreased.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced plans to disclose excellent cases on the government innovation website ‘Innovation24’ and support their nationwide dissemination by producing various online and offline promotional contents.

Choi Moon-soon, Governor of Hwacheon-gun, said, “Care is not only for children but also for parents,” and added, “We will lighten the care burden to create an environment where young couples can give birth to and raise children with peace of mind.”