Child's academic dream reopens closed school
Cheongpa Elementary School principal Lee Min-cheol presents school entrance certificates to Ryu Chan-hee, right, and a girl entering the school’s Hodo Island branch at an entrance ceremony on Nokdo Island, Mar. 3. / Courtesy of Hankook Ilbo
By Ko Dong-hwan
A child’s wish to receive a school education without leaving his family has moved the hearts of South Chungcheong Province’s educational authorities to reopen a school on a small western island.
Ryu Chan-hee, 8, was surrounded by family members and other residents of Nokdo Island, 20 kilometers off Daecheon Harbor in Boryeong city, when he entered a Cheongpa Elementary School branch on Mar. 3.
Later that day, more than 50 villagers held a celebratory party for the boy’s entrance to the school, which was closed in 2006 due to declining students.
Won Jee-hee, 39, Ryu’s mother who moved to the island last year with her pastor husband and daughter, 5, faced having to send her son to another branch of Cheongpa Elementary School on neighboring Hodo Island by boat every day.
“I would have been worried to see even a light wind that may affect the boat carrying my son,” Won told Hankook Ilbo. “I am just glad that I don’t have to send him so far away.”
The boy said he “liked going to the school without being separated from my family.”
His sister was not unaware of the day’s significance because she will be her brother’s junior peer in a few years.
The campaign to reopen the school was led by Ryu’s father, who told provincial educational ministry officials that “family should not be broken apart” and demanded that they“not ignore my son’s elementary education, which is mandatory for all citizens.”
The ministry accepted his petition and decided to refurbish the school and prepare accommodation for a teacher.
Reopening such a public school is unprecedented in Korea.
Superintendent Kim Ji-cheol of the ministry said the school’s reopening “was not easy amid the central government’s ongoing move to shut down schools with declining student.”
But he said his province “will leave no student behind and breathe life into villages through education.”
Ryu will study at the school four days a week. On two days he will go to Hodo Island to socialize with the six students there.
Cheongpa Elementary School’s main building in Boryeong city will offer a co-op program and physical education lessons once every semester.