In the face of educational inequality, Korea’s public libraries are providing numerous programs to nurture academic improvement.
The fervor for education seems unlikely to come to an end in South Korea, and costs continue to increase for private educational institutes and supplementary lessons. Aiming to be accepted to prestigious schools, students strive to be excel at academics amid fierce competition. Many parents are pressured to send their children to expensive private institutions for further enhancement.
Nevertheless, there are children who are completely excluded from this whole phenomenon. Children under or slightly above the poverty line are not fully capable of going to expensive private institutions since they lack financial support. Thus, public libraries are stepping in to provide opportunities to these children.
One such library, Jongam-dong New-day Children Library, was founded in Feb. 2011 to be an active learning environment for children in Seungbuk-gu. It stores a total of 21,065 children’s books in areas of philosophy, religion, sociology, science, technological science, arts, language, literature, and history. Children are able to visit the library during the day to read as many books as they want.
The library specializes in diverse programming. According to Seok Mi-hyun, the librarian in charge of administration at New-Day, it has over 25 programs designed for children. With various activities in art, science, English, Chinese, Korean, reading, theatre, movie, reading, storytelling, speech presentation skills, history and pottery, children experience a deeper sense of learning.
A program called “Elementary Science” was designed to foster students in developing scientific curiosity by participating in science experiments. “Traveling World History” was a program for students to study various history and culture of different people. Through these programs, students establish a firm foundation of habitual reading and academic curiosity.
As an ideal model of a children’s library, New-day endeavors to provide valuable lessons to children.
