Gimpo City’s “Nation’s First, School Enrollment Notification for Foreign Children” Policy
Receives Top Evaluation in Inequality Reduction Category
Kim Byungsoo, the mayor of Gimpo, received the Grand Prize in the Inequality Reduction category at the '2025 National Local Government Manifesto Best Practices Competition' for the policy of 'Nation's First, School Enrollment Notification for Foreign Children.'
Kim Byungsu, Mayor of Gimpo City, is delivering a congratulatory speech at the opening ceremony of the Gimpo City Intercultural Exchange Center in October 2024. Photo by Gimpo City
Previously, Gimpo City was the first local government to request a review and resolution from the Personal Information Protection Commission regarding the possibility of acquiring personal information of foreign children. In April 2024, the request was approved, establishing a legal basis for local governments to receive personal information of foreign children from the Ministry of Justice.
Until then, there had been no institutional mechanism or legal basis for local governments to notify foreign children of school age about school enrollment, nor to acquire their personal information. Gimpo City proactively identified and addressed this gap, which had resulted in missed educational opportunities for foreign children.
As a result, in December of the same year, the city sent school enrollment notifications, translated by nationality, to 112 foreign children from 18 countries residing in Gimpo. Inspired by this, 21 local governments in Gyeonggi Province benchmarked the policy and completed school enrollment notifications for 2,037 foreign children in the province.
Meanwhile, the 'National Local Government Manifesto Best Practices Competition' organized by the Korea Manifesto Implementation Headquarters is held annually to discover, share, and spread exemplary policy cases from local governments across the country.
This year, the final presentation round was held at Andong Campus of Kyungpook National University from July 23 to 24, with 191 cases that passed the first written screening out of 401 cases submitted by 159 local governments.
Gimpo City is receiving the Grand Prize in the Inequality Mitigation category at the 2025 Manifesto Best Practices Competition. Photo by Gimpo City
The Family Support Team of the Family and Culture Division of Gimpo City was recognized as the best policy model for inequality reduction, as their presentation on the school enrollment notification policy for foreign children demonstrated creative solutions to problems, effectively guaranteed educational opportunities for foreign children, and widely spread positive effects to other local governments.
Kim Byungsoo, mayor of Gimpo, stated, "During the 8th popularly elected term, Gimpo City has continuously strived to realize the bright and healthy values of intercultural exchange across all generations," and added, "We will continue to actively and creatively pursue municipal administration from various perspectives to bring about tangible improvements in the quality of life that citizens can truly feel."
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