Island children, too, will learn gugak...Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education partners with National Gugak Center to narrow the education gap

【Financial News, Incheon = Han Gab-soo, reporter】 The Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education is working to expand gugak education so that children are not excluded from arts and cultural education because they live on islands. It has established a partnership with the National Gugak Center to provide students in island areas, including Yeonpyeong Island, with opportunities to learn gugak and to introduce traditional Korean music to children from kindergarten age onward.
The Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education said on the 5th that it had signed an MOU with the National Gugak Center on the 4th at the center in Seoul’s Seocho District to promote gugak education.
Under the agreement, the two institutions will support a ‘one art education program per student’ centered on traditional Korean instruments at schools in island areas, including Yeonpyeong Island. The aim is to give students in island areas, where arts and cultural education infrastructure is relatively limited, opportunities to learn and play traditional instruments themselves.
The institutions will pilot the ‘Gugak Delivery Box’ program at public kindergartens attached to schools. They aim to introduce gugak naturally from early childhood, reducing the distance children feel from traditional music and bringing forward the starting point for arts and cultural education.
They will also work to share educational materials that can be used in schools. Through an integrated online page for public gugak education, they plan to share and promote sheet music for original gugak choral pieces developed by the Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education, among other materials.
They will also jointly run career-exploration programs related to gugak, helping students go beyond simply learning traditional music and explore careers and jobs in related fields.
The agreement is particularly significant because it takes the educational conditions of island areas into account. Although these areas are part of the Seoul metropolitan area, their island geography means students have relatively few opportunities to access cultural facilities and specialized arts education; the agreement will provide them with opportunities to learn gugak through their schools.
Superintendent Do Seong-hun said, “Incheon has a longstanding connection to our music, like Baengnyeongdo, steeped in the legend of the pansori work Simcheongga,” adding, “We will actively support children in island villages so they can grow up learning and singing our music.”
[email protected] Han Gab-soo Reporter