By Kang Shin-who
SEOGUIPO, Jeju Island — Britain’s prestigious North London Collegiate School (NLCS) broke ground Wednesday for the construction of its new campus on Jeju Island.
The school will open in September next year, offering programs for grades five and six, as well secondary school courses.
The Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC) plans to establish 12 primary and secondary schools by 2015 and the U.K.’s private school is the first among them to be built.
A number of dignitaries, including Byon Jong-il, CEO of JDC; and Woo Keun-min, governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province participated in the ceremony.
JDC officials said that starting with the British school, they will attract other world-renowned schools for the “Jeju Global Education City” project.
The NLCS, located in southern Jeju, will be built on 104,385 square meters of land, accommodating an indoor swimming pool and gymnasium along with a concert hall and large dormitory.
The school can accept up to 1,388 students, but it will recruit 568 for the first academic year.
Its junior school will run a coeducational program for fifth and sixth grade elementary students and boys- and girls-only programs for seventh to 11th grade students. For the 12th and 13th grade programs, the school, which is accredited to offer an International Baccalaureate program, will implement a co-educational program.
The tuition has yet to be decided but JDC officials said they will try to adjust it to half of the costs in the U.S. or U.K. Jeju, along with the island’s Provincial Office of Education, signed a memorandum of understanding with NLCS in April last year over the establishment of the school. The island plans to attract not only Korean students but also those from neighboring countries.
Established in 1850, NLCS was the first girls’ school in the U.K. With some 1,100 students aged between 4 and 18 attending the school, it is recognized as a premier private school, and many of its graduates go on to Oxford and Cambridge universities.