By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Kim Sang-gon, superintendent-elect of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, said the education office will secure enough funds to phase in free lunches to all elementary school students in the province by the second semester of next year.
He also will expand the range of recipients to some middle and high school students from low-income brackets and farming or fishing villages.
According to the plan proposed by Kim's transition team, the local education office will extend the meal service to 1.01 million students, all 880,000 elementary school students and 130,000 middle and high school students, making up 55 percent of students in the province.
This is the first time for a provincial office of education to serve free meals to all elementary school students.
The service will first be extended to 150,000 elementary school students in rural areas from this September and all elementary students will be covered by the second semester of 2010.
``The provision of school meals is one of Kim's core ideas,'' an official of the transition team said. ``The goal of this policy is to guarantee the basic livelihood of students so they can study despite their parents' low income.''