Osan City which succeeded in developments through education

By Feature Editor Kim Hyung-dae

Mayor Kwak Sang-wook, who has been leading the city of Osan since 2010 as a third-term mayor, is now in his last year in office.

Recently, Osan City analyzed the factors affecting the improvement of urban settlement for the first time in Korea with big data analysis using artificial intelligence algorithms.

As a result, it was learned that the influence of education and childcare policies on the settlement of residents was as high as 87%.

In addition, since 2010, the annual household growth rate in Osan City has increased by 34.4% and the duration of residncve, too, has incresed by 59.1% compared with the figures recorded 10 years ago.

Mayor Kwak Sang-wook of the Osan City said that through AI education, elementary, middle, high, and young people will be able to develop into creatively talented persons suitable for the AI era, the axis of the future society, with a single consistent education system.

The past, present and future of education in Osan City will be reviewed to see how Mayor Kwak as an education innovator changed the city through constant efforts for education.

The beginning of the “Education City Osan” to tear down the barriers and difference between schools and regions!

Beginning of the ‘Education City of Osan’ starts with tearing down the barriers standing between the school and the region.

Starting with the innovation of public education in which the village that has been utilizing the village's human and material resources becomes a school, a lifelong learning culture, in which all citizens learn and teach through a ‘crossing-stone’ class throughout the village has been revitalized.

As it was selected as an innovative education district in Gyeonggi Province in 2011, efforts were made so that the whole village could be together in raising children by supporting the school curriculum and discovering experience sites in various regions so that learning can become a joyful school.

It was not just the role of the local government to support only expenses, but as the subject of education, the discovery and linkage of educational resources suitable for the region could be promoted, and it could be a trusted educational support for schools and parents as well.

Typical examples of successful innovation education include citizens participation school, survival swimming, ‘miri tomorrow’ school. The program also consists of training for student with one musical instrument, each student for one musical instrument (e.g., guitar) and  one physical education for each student. The same goes also with foreign language general high school early-bird project, and revitalization of discussion culture.

Unique education system in Osan has become globalized with a learning network system

In Osan, there are no longer boundaries between school education and lifelong education, and they are working together organically within the framework of Osan Education.

In addition, the Osan City, as a global green life-long learning city, is working as a cluster coordinator for UNESQ Global Learning Cities Network (GNLC), focusing on capacity-building and network reinforcement through joint learning on common themes of learning cities around the world.

The Osan City joined the GNLC (UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities) in 2016, and attended the 3rd International Conference on Learning Cities held in Cork City, Ireland in 2017. Meanwhile, Osan City has introduced excellent examples of lifelong learning.

In 2019, at the 4th International Conference on Learning Cities held in Medezine, Colombia, Osan City in the seven thematic cluster projects to develop life-long learning strategies through case-sharing and peer-learning for GNLC member cities for two years. It was also selected as a co-leader city (coordinator city) with Cork, Ireland in the theme cluster.

In addition, Mayor Kwak Sang-wook of the Osan City was invited as a member of the Advisory Committee to the 5th International Conference on Learning Cites (ICLC 5) to be held in October this year, and serves as an advisory committee member along with 14 related experts from 9 countries.

Osan City has consistently built partnerships with the world's leading cities for life-long learning, such as Espocity in Finland and Villa Maria in Argentina, which are evaluated as leaders of life-long learning in the world as well as exchanges through international conferences.

In addition, we will continue to reinforce our status as a global life-long learning city that spreads, learns and grows in many countries beyond Korea.

Osan City overcomes Covid-19 crisis with Osan Village Education Community

In the early stages of the spread of COVID-19, a sharing campaign called "Warm Mask" was held throughout Osan City when it was in trouble due to a lack of supply and demand of masks.

The city distributed fabric mask production kits for filter replacement, and lifelong learning activists taught residents how to make masks, so the masks made by residents themselves were  donated to vulnerable people to overcome the COVID-19 crisis together.

"Warm Mask" is a representative example of how citizens wisely overcome ecological and environmental crises such as COVID-19 through lifelong learning.

Osan City has promoted various educational policies as well as warm masks. Through emergency care support, instructors for distance learning were dispatched to each school and home, and online education videos such as one-person instrument, acoustic guitar, and maker education were produced and shared. It also promoted Osan's high school credit system, which focuses on blended learning that combines remote and online.

The city distributed fabric mask production kits for filter replacement, and lifelong learning activists taught residents how to make masks, so the masks made by residents themselves were  donated to vulnerable people to overcome the COVID-19 crisis together.

"Warm Mask" is a representative example of how citizens wisely overcome ecological and environmental crises such as COVID-19 through lifelong learning.

Osan City has promoted various educational policies as well as warm masks. Through emergency care support, instructors for distance learning were dispatched to each school and home, and online education videos such as one-person instrument, acoustic guitar, and maker education were produced and shared. It also promoted Osan's high school credit system, which focuses on blended learning that combines remote and online.

In preparation for the post-Covid era, AI-based education focuses on nurturing future talent

Osan City is focusing on nurturing talented people who will lead the future 4th industry such as artificial intelligence to prepare for post-COVID-19. Osan City has already supported the establishment of maker spaces for each school or maker education center run by the city for years, allowing drones, coding, and 3D printing, the core technologies of the fourth industry, to be accessed in public education without private education.

STEAM education, which can enhance interest and understanding in science and technology, is helping children to think creatively and convergingly. Osan City was selected on December 18, 2020 as the Ministry of Education's "Future Education Self-Governing Cooperation District (Future Education District) in 2021" and "Specialized District for After-school Local Connection."

It plans to build a total of 12 schools from 2020 by promoting a project to support the construction of future schools based on Edu-Tech to build a future learning environment using educational technology. Osan City will conduct an edutech-based convergence education course to foster creative talent who actively respond to future society based on establishing a wireless Internet network in all spaces of the school so that remote classes can be held at any time.

Segyo High School, which was selected as an AI education-focused school by the Ministry of Education in 2020, is actively conducting robot classes in conjunction with Kwangwoon University. Unam High School plans to focus on AI education in conjunction with Seoul National University of Science and Technology. In order to help children with such AI-based education in the career, the city is seeking to establish an AI specialized high school in Segyo District 2, which is currently developing housing sites. The Osan Start-up Haebom Center, which will provide integrated supports, ranging  from education on fourth industrial technology to prototype development and startups, will be completed in 2023.

Osan City also plans to push for more than 40 projects for young people's lives, including youth participation, jobs, space, education, welfare and housing, given that jobs for young people determine the vitality and future of our economy.

Along with the U.S. Forces Korea's employment-linked program, Earl College, the project will be expanded to hoteliers and flower complexes. It plans to create new jobs through ICT field specialist training process, social economy kangaroo project, and small and medium-sized youth win-win project, and actively attract government policy projects such as youth digital jobs and Green New Deal jobs. In the future, when the Osan Startup Haebom Center is established, it will provide one-stop start-up support along with the start-up space to carry out the youth career JUMP-UP capacity building project, and create and operate a youth job cafe.