Kindergarteners and residents harvest sweet potatoes in a field on the northern outskirts of Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 17, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Elementary and middle school students in Seoul will be given the chance to attend rural schools for a certain period of time to gain a different perspective from what is common at urban schools.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on Monday that it will launch a program to enable the city’s elementary and middle school students to study in farming villages.
To this end, it signed an agreement with the Jeollanam-do Provincial Office of Education.
Starting from March nest year, the program will provide about 100 elementary and middle school students in Seoul with the chance to study at rural schools in farming villages of South Jeolla Province for a certain period of time.
Students in fourth, fifth and sixth grade as well as the first and second year of middle school will be able to apply for the program.
The new program will offer three different types of experiences: ‘home stay,’ where the students live in a rural household and are cared for by the parents of the household; ‘family stay,’ where the students move to a farming village along with their family members; and ‘regional center,’ where the students live in a regional center with the center’s employees serving as guardians for them.
The period of stay can be extended on a semester (six months) basis.
However, the total period of stay is limited to graduation from the sixth grade for elementary school students and graduation from the second year of middle school for older students.
The per-capita cost is 800,000 won (US$737) per month. The costs will be split evenly between the students, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the Jeollanam-do Provincial Office of Education.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
