Yeosu's Ungcheon Site, a Parking Lot for 6 Years: Could Eastern Jeonnam Get a Science High School?

Councilor Lee: "Resolve commuting difficulties and nurture future talent"
Superintendent Kim: "Strongly agree; will review feasibility and launch working group"

A proposal has been made to establish a science high school in eastern Jeonnam using a long-unused school site in the Ungcheon District of Yeosu.

The plan aims to address the mismatch in school locations, which remain based on outdated criteria despite the shift in where people live following the development of new urban areas, and to create a hub for nurturing talent to lead advanced industries in the Honam region.

Lee Seokju, member of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Special City Council.

At the fifth plenary session of the fourth extraordinary session on municipal affairs and educational administration on Oct. 15, Councilor Lee Seokju of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Special City Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Yeosu) questioned Superintendent of Education Kim Dae-jung in depth about the lack of high schools in Yeosu's Ungcheon District and plans to establish a system for educating gifted students in science in the eastern region.

Councilor Lee first pointed to a severe imbalance in high schools in Sijeon-dong, home to more than 40,000 people, and the Ungcheon District, where large apartment complexes have been built. Of the seven general high schools in Yeosu's standardized school district, five are concentrated in the old city center. As a result, he said, students in the Ungcheon District spend an hour and a half to two hours on the road every morning and have become "commuting refugees."

In particular, Councilor Lee said, "Ungcheon-dong was designated as a high school site from the early stages of the district-level plan, but it has been left as a parking lot for 16 years." He stressed, "Rather than looking only at statistics showing a decline in the school-age population, we need to comprehensively reconsider school locations based on the actual residential areas where students live."

He also made clear that forcibly relocating existing schools in the old city center had clear limitations, as it would only cause a sense of deprivation and conflict between regions - a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. As a way forward, Councilor Lee cited the "800 trillion won Honam semiconductor cluster" being pursued by the integrated special city of Jeonnam and Gwangju, and strongly proposed establishing a science high school in the eastern region.

Councilor Lee stressed, "The Ungcheon site, which has been left unused for 16 years, is already designated for a school, making land acquisition and administrative procedures the fastest options." He added, "Combining Yeosu's chemical materials industrial complex infrastructure with the research capabilities of its universities would make this the ideal location to realize Superintendent Kim's core philosophy of 'educational jisansojiso' - nurturing local talent in the region and helping them settle there."

Superintendent Kim responded by expressing strong agreement with Councilor Lee's concerns. "I understand the commuting problems faced by students in the eastern region and the practical difficulties of relocating schools from the old city center," he said. "With the semiconductor cluster in the works, urgently nurturing more than 10,000 advanced-industry professionals is essential, and a science high school is certainly needed in eastern Jeonnam as well."

He continued, "We will begin reviewing the suitability of the Ungcheon site proposed by Councilor Lee." He pledged, "We will launch an official working group between Yeosu City and the Office of Education within this quarter to discuss how to use the site and consider candidate locations for a science high school in the eastern region."

Attention is focused on whether education authorities, which have so far remained stuck in defensive administration asking "which schools should be closed" in the face of declining student numbers, can reach a turning point and shift toward a future-oriented vision of "what kind of education can attract talent."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.