Mayor Park Il-ha is seeing off the members of the Dongjak District Youth Council who are departing for a workshop last October. /Courtesy of Seoul Dongjak District
Mayor Park Il-ha is seeing off the members of the Dongjak District Youth Council who are departing for a workshop last October. /Courtesy of Seoul Dongjak District

On the 18th, Dongjak District announced that it would support middle and high school students with up to 200,000 won per person for school trip expenses this year. Among the 25 autonomous districts in Seoul, Dongjak is the first to offer support for school trip expenses regardless of parents' income or asset.

If the school trip is domestic, it will cost about 500,000 to 600,000 won for a 3-night, 4-day schedule. Dongjak's plan is to support up to 200,000 won per person from this amount. The beneficiaries include a total of 2,839 students from 19 schools, including 15 middle schools and 4 high schools in Dongjak planning school trips. The total amount that Dongjak will support for school trip expenses this year is 558.21 million won.

Support for school trip expenses is limited to the actual travel expenses incurred by the student and is based on one trip per grade level for each school during enrollment. Students who commute from other areas to schools in Dongjak are excluded.

Dongjak District stated that the school trip expense program is being implemented to reduce the economic burden on households in response to numerous requests from parents and to ensure that no students are left behind from going on school trips. A Dongjak official noted, "We squeezed out the budget like wringing a dry towel."

As of 2024, Dongjak's financial independence rate is recorded at 28.4%, ranking 9th among the 25 autonomous districts in Seoul. The average for Seoul's autonomous districts is 26.4%, with Gangnam District in first place at 56.1%.

According to the Ministry of Education, as of 2023, among the 17 city and provincial education offices, 12 provide a certain amount of school trip expenses ranging from 200,000 to 500,000 won for all students, regardless of parents' financial circumstances. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education provides 500,000 won for school trip expenses only to vulnerable groups.

The beneficiaries of this school trip expense support in Dongjak District exclude students receiving support from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Gwangjin District also provides an additional 200,000 won for school trip expenses specifically for students from low-income single-parent households.

Park Il-ha, the Dongjak District Chief, said, "I made this policy decision, the first of its kind in the autonomous district, with the hope that students will gain a broader perspective by going on school trips."