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| The head of Byeolmaro Library poses with students in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, after the library was chosen as an institution to benefit from Samsung Electronics' smart school support program, Sept. 26. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
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| Logo for Samsung Electronics |
The company said Friday a total of 16 schools and small libraries were chosen as institutions to benefit from this year's Samsung Smart School program.
Under the program, the tech giant has installed high-tech school systems including smart devices such as Samsung Flip, a digital whiteboard, tablets and laptops, as well as educational contents suitable for digital education.
Samsung launched the smart school support program in 2012 in a bid to reduce the digital education gap and a total of 83 institutions all over the nation benefited from the program until 2018.
For this year's smart school support program, 400 schools and education institutions applied and Samsung singled out 16 organizations after going through three rounds of evaluations and online voting processes.
"One of the institutions to benefit from the support program includes Geumseo Elementary School near Mount Jiri in South Jeolla Province. The school is on the verge of being closed down as there are only 20 students. Through the Samsung Smart School program, we hope that the school's students can achieve their dream ― which is graduating from the elementary school," the company said.
The chosen institutions also include Wooridul School in Seoul, where the students are comprised of or descended from North Korean defectors, and Byeolmaro Library in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, located near the abandoned mine area.
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| A Cheontae Elementary School teacher in Hwasun, South Jeolla Province, teaches using smart devices donated by Samsung Electronics, Sept. 26. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
To ensure the program's success, Samsung Electronics employees also have been participating with the program as they lay out educational programs to offer customized curriculums for each institution and visit the organizations to form a mentoring relationship with students.
Cho Seong-jin, an engineer working at the mobile division, who took part in the program as a mentor for the first time in 2018, said he decided to join this year's program as well in order to contribute to reducing the education gap.
"When I was young, I could ride out hard times thanks to the support of my mentor. At a time when the education gap is getting wider, I will do my best to reduce the gap through the smart school program," he said.
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