New school for multicultural children opens

An inauguration ceremony was held on March 2 for the Global International School, the first multicultural school ever to receive accreditation from the civil education department, heralding a milestone in Korea’s multicultural education.


Affiliated with Global Sarang -- an organization established to help foreign migrants better adapt to Korean society and become an integral part of the community -- the private elementary school offers complimentary educational courses to children from multicultural families.

Also known as the School of Global Sarang, the GIS provides a formalized six-year elementary school curriculum combined with a series of programs and extracurricular activities geared towards attaining multilingual and intercultural literacy. One of the school’s most distinctive features lies in its fostering of linguistic expertise and cultural diversity.

In a bid to nurture future leaders and the next generation of global citizens, the institution runs a one-on-one learning system designed for the perspectives and aptitudes of students from different cultural, ethnic, and language groups, with a focus on arts and physical education.

Since opening in March last year, the GIS has taught and cultivated 30 children born within multicultural families composed of expatriates from China, Mongolia, Philippines, India, and Ghana among others, along with Korean nationals born overseas.

Upon receiving accreditation last November from Seoul’s Nambu District Office of Education, the school recruited 60 additional students, making a total of 90 students enrolled in the school’s well-rounded curriculum divided into six classes. The school located in Oryu-dong in Seoul accepts enrollment applications year-round.

“We decided to open a school for their children to respond to the ever-increasing demand for a special educational institution by migrant workers and wives who have experienced difficulties in educating kids,” said Kim Hae-sung, the founder and president of Global Sarang. “The establishment of the school was made possible with aid and support from various individual and corporate patrons.”

To ensure the continuity of education, Global Sarang offers an array of diverse programs and services custom-tailored for foreign migrant and multicultural families, including day care for preschoolers and after-school programs.

The organization also operates the Migrant Workers' Hospital, a support center where foreign migrants can benefit from mentoring programs, learn the Korean language, and participate in cultural programs. For interpretation services and grievance counseling, call 1644-0644.

By Hwang Dana
Korea.net Staff Writer