CREATIVE UTILIZATION OF EMPTY SCHOOL

[Anchor Lead]

South Korea's chronic low birthrate is taking a toll on the nation's schools, as classrooms are seeing fewer students. Follow us to a neighborhood where empty classrooms are transformed into community spaces and being utilized to the max.

[Pkg]

This school building is filled with the sound of beating drums. It's the first time students are learning Nanta, a non-verbal percussion performance, so they are understandably struggling.

[Soundbite] "The beat is on where? (3.) Yes 3."

But the students, who are local residents, are excited to learn Nanta, which they have only seen in shows on stage.

[Soundbite] LEE EUN-GYEONG(SUWON CITIZEN) : "I have 3 kids and I'm relieving the stress of raising them by pounding the drum. It's so fun."

This school, where the locals learn new skills, is named the Seoho Tree Frog Village. One building of a school complex had been empty over the past decade as student numbers sharply dropped from some 2,000 to only about 200. Suwon City, its education bureau and school officials came together and devised a plan to turn the building into a community center. The spacious first and second floors are open to the public.

[Soundbite] HEO NA-RIN(4TH GRADE, SEOHO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL) : "I'm no longer bored because I'm taking classes here with friends and teachers."

This project in Suwon differs from other school transformations, where empty classrooms are turned into leisure spaces mainly for the students. The Tree Frog Village is for the whole community.

[Soundbite] KIM JI-AH(SUWON CITY OFFICIAL) : "If there are empty school facilities not being put to use, we will push for similar projects in cooperation with the locals at any time."

Schools and classrooms are going vacant nationwide amid the falling number of children in the country. Ideas on how to better use the empty facilities can be gleaned from the Suwon example.