Daesungdong Elementary School within DMZ became ‘luxury school’ after crisis to be closed
USFK servicemember English teachers...
No less special activities than private schools...
“Students in vicinity even line up to enter the school”
Chosun Ilbo
A public elementary school in a rural area of South Korea overcame a crisis to be closed and became famous even more than private schools. Some students in nearby areas are even lining up in order to enter the school. It is Daesungdong Elementary School. It is the only school in the world which is located within the DMZ. After the school was officially authorized in 1968, the number of entire students who graduated the school is only 149. It is also the closest school from the MDL, which is almost impossible for people to get access to. What is the reason that this school became a ‘luxury school’?
In-school special activities even better than private education
Daesungdong Elementary School faced a crisis with only six students left in February 2008, after three sixth graders graduated. There were no new students that entered this school in 2006 and 2007. Since the Paju Education Office set a policy that ‘a school with less than six students will be closed because it cannot enhance educational efficiencies’, the school became one of the targets to be closed.
Principal Choi Pyung and his 17 school personnel, having perceived this crisis, started to think out ‘special ideas for survival’ from September, 2006. They made a plan to include Daesungdong Elementary School into the Paju Joint School District so that any student within Paju City can go to this school. After consultations with the Paju Education Office, they successfully implemented the plan. However, there was no single reason for students to come to this school from a far distance.
After a series of deep studies, they decided to ‘conduct private education within the school’. They planned to invite and utilize US servicemembers as English teachers. The plan was to best utilize a number of US servicemembers serving the UNC, who guards the school and Daesungdong Village for twenty four hours a day. In May 2007, Principal Choi visited the UNC headquarters in Seoul to ask Chief Secretary to the UNCMAC COL Kurt Taylor for help. Next day, he visited JSA Security Battalion Commander LTC Anastasia to ask for help. The UNC readily accepted the school’s wish. 35 servicemembers have been teaching students for four hours a day twice a week in a threesome a time on rotation since March, 2008.
The school reinforced special activities and on-site education. It installed after-school programs such as; recorder orchestra, fusion percussion, drama and preparation for computer-related certificates. It diversified programs for on-site experience; visiting Panmunjom, watching non-verbal performance “NANTA”, watching martial arts performance “JUMP”, visiting a flower festival in Simhak Mountain, making traditional Korean bows with a ‘living’ cultural heritage, visiting the National Assembly and KOEX Aquarium, having ski lessons at Hongchon and Daemyung ski resorts and etc. The school shouldered all the expense, 100%! It put the whole 70 million KRW allocated as a basic education fund and 15 million KRW subsidy for after-school activities into these on-site experience programs. The money was given by the Paju Education Office.
The school was selected as a ‘luxury school’ by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education and received four million KRW.
‘Fresh English’ learned from US servicemembers
You have to get permission from the UNC to reach this school. You have to present your ID at Panmunjom and have to pass three gates, which are all guarded by armed soldiers. In spite of that, the number of students at the school reached the highest ever, 25 students, in the fall, 2008. Five new students will attend and two more will transfer to this school in March, 2009. Even after the only remaining sixth grader graduates, the number will reach 31, which is the maximum since the school was founded. There are only six students among them who actually live in Daesungdong village.
Even though the maximum number of students should be 30 according to the agreement with the UNC, 15 students are even waiting to attend the school. Most of them are living in Munsan, which is ten kilometers away from the school.
When we visited the school January 29th, it was a winter break. Still, the school was ‘alive and busy’ with about 25 students shouting and jumping around in the playground. US servicemembers casually went into classrooms and walked along the corridor.
There was a sign which reads ‘Cooking Club’ at the first classroom for third graders. Sounds of frying mushrooms and onions were coming out from the classroom. Two US soldiers in patterned uniforms and eight students were laughing out loudly near a skillet.
Kim Yong-joon, a fourth grader, playing with SGT Bickley then, said that he transferred to this school in June 2008. It only took ten minutes on foot to go to the school he formerly attended. Even though it takes more than fifty minutes by a school bus to come to school, he said, “It is not tough at all.” He added, “Because it is lots of fun to learn English from American ‘soldier uncles’ and I can talk a lot with teachers here.”
One of the parents of students Yoo Yoon-sung (a 36-year-old female) transferred her two daughters, a first grader and a third grader, to this school. It also takes fifty minutes for them to come to school; however, she said, “There is no need for them to get other private educations and they can play around in the nature, stepping on the soil.”
 Read More
|
|
 |
PHOTOS |
|
|
|
|
