21 Suwon Schools to Get 'Green Makeover' This Year

Suwon City will invest 15 billion won this year to create school forests at 21 schools (12 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 4 high schools, and 1 special education school) as part of its efforts to develop a greener city.

The ‘school forest creation’ project, which the city has been promoting since 2003, was launched to create forests in schoolyards with poor green environments, providing students with emotional cultivation and natural learning spaces while also offering recreational areas to local residents.

Schools interested in creating school forests apply to the city or relevant districts, and selected schools undergo review by a school forest selection committee. Selected schools will be equipped with arboretums, rest areas, botanical and zoological gardens, and outdoor learning spaces.

The 21 schools selected by the city for this year’s ‘school forest creation’ project include Suwon Seogwang School (special education), 12 elementary schools including Suwon, Songwon, Dongshin, Daepyeong, and Myeongdang elementary schools, 4 middle schools including Suwon, Songwon, and Maehyeon middle schools, and 4 high schools including Suwon Girls’, Cheongmyeong, and Hwahong high schools.

An official at the city’s Green Parks Division said, “We originally planned to create school forests at 15 schools, but due to high application rates and secured budgets, we expanded to 21 schools,” and added, “To use the budget efficiently, we plan to carry out the ‘school forest creation’ project twice—in spring and fall.”

Accordingly, the city has selected 10 schools with strong implementation commitment and capable of achieving relatively significant results with the secured budget, and plans to prioritize their creation in spring.

The 10 schools undergoing school forest construction in spring are Songwon, Segok, Hwanggok, Ilwol, Daepyeong, Dosin, Chilbo, Hwaseo elementary schools, Songwon middle school, and Suwon Girls’ high school.

Meanwhile, the ‘school forest creation’ project, planned in three phases through 2014, has completed forests at 48 schools total (34 elementary schools and 14 middle schools) starting with Ingye Elementary School, showing a 28% progress rate.

The city plans to invest a total budget of 154 billion won across 154 schools in three phases: phase 1 (2003-2006) at 57 schools, phase 2 (2007-2010) at 60 schools, and phase 3 (2011-2014) at 46 schools.