Han River crossing for children nixed

By Yun Suh-young

An 18-year-old Han River crossing event for Seoul children will be halted next year due to its fading purpose.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said Monday the event which had 14,901 Seoul children swim across the Han River for the past 18 years will be abolished from next year.

The education office said there was no reason to continue the event because it had been held mainly for display purposes, just to show that the event was taking place.

The office cut the funds for the event from the annual budget for next year. It had been planning to abolish the event since earlier this year when the office was reviewing its educational projects.

On a survey they conducted on 200 elementary schools in Seoul, the majority stated that the event was no longer meaningful and should be abolished because it was pretentious.

Those who oppose the abolition say, however, that the swim is strictly educational because it teaches children to acquire confidence through swimming.

The Han River crossing swim began on June 24, 1994 when Seoul Deoksoo Elementary School students swam across the northern Han River in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, to commemorate the Korean War. All 625 students from the school swam 625 meters in memory of the war which began on June 25.

Since 2005, the venue of the event was changed to the lower stream in Seoul to allow children swim a distance of 1 kilometer across the river.