Since 2010, support for studying in rural areas… 320 students studying abroad through 29 centers nationwide
Leaving the city for more than 6 months and living in a rural area… Participation in community activities such as village festivals
Providing holistic education to urban children… Revitalize rural villages experiencing aging
After school in Danyang, Chungcheongbuk-do, the children of Handmi Village play soccer with their friends to their heart’s content or gather together to play badminton and learn drums and guitar. They play house games using soil and stones as materials, and they even go out to dig greens. In this way, they learn cooperation and a sense of community, experience nature first-hand, and spend time learning and realizing on their own. It is different from elementary and middle school students in cities who spend a day visiting two or three hagwons after school is over.
When we hear the word ‘study abroad’, we often think of going abroad or moving from the countryside to the city. Studying abroad in rural areas means that urban children leave their parents for more than six months, live in rural farmhouses or study abroad centers, and attend small rural schools where they can communicate with teachers and friends. It is a holistic education program that learns life through various experiences while living with a rural community, playing in the nature of the countryside, cultivating the habit of living on your own.
Moonchan Jung, CEO of Handemi Rural Study Center, was thinking about how to save an aging village and save Gagokcho Daegok Branch School from the crisis of closure. first encountered Hearing that there is a case in which villages have been saved through studying in the mountains in rural Japan, he decided to promote studying abroad as a village project, and then established a rural study abroad center to create a village for young people to return to.
CEO Jung said, “Without the help and efforts of the residents who worked together to save the village in the process of establishing and operating the rural study center, it would have been difficult to create the current rural study center where 50 children and young people live together.” “Support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, local governments, and the Rural Community Corporation also played a major role in establishing and operating the Rural Study Center,” he said. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Community Corporation have been conducting the ‘Rural Study Abroad Support Project’ since 2010 to enhance rural vitality by expanding urban-rural exchanges through rural life and school experiences for urban students and forming an educational community in rural areas. Through this project, the Rural Study Abroad Center operates various programs in connection with rural villages and schools, and carries out various activities to strengthen the education and care functions for foreign students in rural areas, such as payment of labor costs for workers, purchase of educational materials, and facility renovation.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Development Corporation distributed the standard operation manual and introduced the evaluation system for the study abroad center in order to build the foundation and improve the quality of studying in rural areas. In addition, the production and broadcasting of TV documentaries for the spread of studying in rural areas, production and transmission of web dramas, and production of promotional videos and publicity panels for the study abroad center in rural areas, etc.
As of 2021, 320 elementary and middle school students from 29 rural study abroad centers across the country are participating in rural study abroad support programs. In addition, 165 Seoul students are studying in rural areas in Jeollanam-do through the rural study abroad program of the Seoul Office of Education and the Jeonnam Office of Education.
Just having children in rural areas, where it is difficult to find children these days, brings life to the village. The Rural Study Center conducts various community activities such as village festivals, senior citizens’ feasts, and lunchbox sharing where children and youth can interact with rural residents, creating a vibrant rural village.
The operation of the forest school linked to the after-school school at the Ulju Soho Sanchon Study Abroad Center in Ulsan, the village festival held at the Milmeori Rural Study Center in Yeoju, Gyeonggi, the Autumn Hanmadang at the Handemi Rural Study Center, and the Starlight Concert at the Starlight Mountain Education Center in Chuncheon, Gangwon, etc. The program is jointly promoted by the residents and is well received by rural residents.
In addition, it is contributing to the revitalization of the rural local economy by visiting rural villages by urban parents, experiential camps for studying abroad in rural areas, returning hometowns for parents who have experienced studying abroad in rural areas, and creating jobs for those studying in rural areas.
In fact, five families of the parents who experienced study abroad at the Handumi Rural Study Center have returned to the countryside. There are also four families living together in Danyang while their children are studying in the countryside. In addition, there is a case where an international student who has graduated from a rural study abroad center returns to Handmi Village after becoming an adult and finds a job as an activist at the rural study abroad center.
Studying in rural areas prevents the consolidation and abolition of small rural schools and contributes to the resolution of double-class classes, and also plays a role in preventing the collapse of public education in rural areas. In the case of Songhwa Elementary School, which is linked to the Chuncheon Starbit Mountain Study Abroad Center, the number of rural students increased from 4 in 2010 to 12 in 2020.
An official who promotes the rural study abroad support project said, “Studying in the countryside is an educational program that takes care of urban children who are tired of busy city life and fierce competition with the warm arms of the countryside and revitalizes rural areas that are stagnant due to aging and population decline with the laughter of children.” He said, “We will listen to the opinions of the rural study abroad center, parents, and rural students so that studying in the countryside can play a bigger role in raising children and saving the countryside.”
By Kwon Hyuk-il, staff reporter [email protected]
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