GOVT'S PLAN TO CREATE GREEN SMART SCHOOLS

[Anchor Lead]

The government will combine digital and environmental technologies to transform outdated schools into futuristic ones that will be able to switch between off- and online education. It's part of the Korean New Deal initiative and President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday visited the site of a so-called green smart school.

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​President Moon visited a school built for the future, the first of its kind in Seoul. Here, tablet computers installed with learning programs have replaced traditional textbooks.

[Soundbite] PRES. MOON JAE-IN : "Was this used during the last online and remote classes?"

[Soundbite] JEONG SO-YEONG(TECH MANAGER, CHANGDEOK GIRLS' MIDDLE SCHOOL) : "Yes, that's correct."

A science class is held using a round table equipped with monitors. Internal organs we only saw through pictures can be observed in augmented reality using a smartphone app.

[Soundbite] "Are these digital textbooks distributed to all teachers and students nationwide?"

[Soundbite] (TEACHING ASSISTANT, CHANGDEOK GIRLS' MIDDLE SCHOOL) : "Yes, social science and natural science textbooks have been prepared."

This school was built 40 years ago but it's transforming into a high-tech institute through the introduction of untact, digital learning and an eco-friendly energy system. Like this example, the government will inject 18 trillion won over the next five years to convert outdated schools into ones better geared for the future. This will affect some 28-hundred old school buildings nationwide.

[Soundbite] "Green smart schools will become the foundation to fundamentally change the way of education and the social role it plays, leading to a major transition for regions and the country."

President Moon said that in order to speed up the project, private sector investment should be reviewed where private firms construct facilities and the government pays rent to use them. Moon also held a meeting with provincial education superintendents and cited inevitable setbacks in the plan to push up the date for full-scale school reopening due to the latest surge in COVID-19 cases. He asked for thorough quarantine efforts in the fall semester.