Gyeonggi Province's Democratic Citizenship Education Shows Remarkable Growth in Both Quantity and Quality

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province's "Democratic Citizenship Education Program," which has been operating to enhance the values of a healthy social community and the qualities and competencies of democratic citizens, is being recognized as achieving remarkable results since the seventh popularly elected administration. Gyeonggi Province's democratic citizenship education marks its fifth year following the enactment of the Democratic Citizenship Education Ordinance in 2015.

According to the province on the 16th, democratic citizenship education has implemented various projects to establish a foundation for expanding democratic citizenship education throughout the province, including public recruitment projects, online education program development, policy research, forums, and debates.

In particular, this year the province has developed and operated specialized democratic citizenship education content for Gyeonggi Province, including ▲the nation's first democratic citizenship education for military personnel ▲Gyeonggi Province's civic community education "ON Project" ▲Gyeonggi Province's democracy experience program "An Invitation to Democracy Through History," drawing positive responses from participants. In November, the province plans to hold history lectures for understanding Korea's modern and contemporary history to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement and the establishment of the Provisional Government.

Additionally, the province has significantly expanded "Youth Labor Rights Education," newly launched since 2018 to protect the labor rights of working youth, implementing projects including ▲dispatching and conducting youth labor rights specialist instructor training ▲hosting the nation's first youth labor rights and career fair among metropolitan local governments ▲distributing youth labor rights manuals ("Alba Yo") ▲developing online content on youth labor rights.
As of the end of September, youth labor rights education reached approximately 43,000 students from middle schools, general and specialized high schools, and out-of-school youth throughout the province. The province projects that over 50,000 participants will receive this education by the end of this year.

Next year, based on accumulated experience and expertise, the province plans to establish a cooperation and support system with cities and counties through business operation consulting to expand democratic citizenship education throughout the province, while also preparing systems for training and dispatching labor rights instructors and upgrading teaching plans and materials to expand and strengthen youth labor rights education.

Jo Hak-soo, director of Gyeonggi Province's Lifelong Education Bureau, stated, "Gyeonggi Province's democratic citizenship education, entering its fifth year of implementation, has achieved significant quantitative and qualitative growth by expanding to diverse groups including adults, youth, military personnel, and field activists," adding, "Based on this foundation, we plan to prepare improved content and programs in 2020 so that more residents of the province can participate."