15 organizations were selected for support this year
Expand the institution not only to island and mountainous regions

The recipients for the 2017 'Smart School' program, a social contribution initiative by Samsung Electronics aimed at bridging the digital education gap, have been finalized.

Samsung Electronics has finally selected a total of 15 institutions for this year's 'Smart School' support, including 9 schools such as elementary schools, 2 special schools, 1 hospital school, 1 multicultural center, and 2 child welfare facilities.

The 'Smart School' initiative was launched in 2012 to foster creative talent by providing educational opportunities to students in remote island and mountainous regions and bridging the digital education gap; to date, 50 institutions and 123 classes in Korea alone have received support.

Since last year, the scope of eligible institutions has been expanded to include not only elementary schools but also institutions equipped with educational facilities for children aged 6 to 18, such as hospitals, multicultural centers, community child centers, and special schools, and the scope has been extended to all regions nationwide, not limited to islands and mountainous areas.

This year, a total of 595 diverse educational institutions applied, and 15 final candidate institutions were selected through document review, on-site inspection, and expert evaluation.

During the evaluation period, expert judges evaluated Samsung Electronics’ ‘Smart School’ as having great significance in that it provides equal educational opportunities to children who have been excluded from the mainstream education system due to reasons such as income, living environment, or health.

Samsung Electronics [conducted] the Samsung 'Smart School' Home for the general public from June 26 to July 24 for the 15 finalist institutionsVoting for empathy regarding the stories was conducted through the page (www.samsungsmartschool.org).

Each candidate institution is selected as a final recipient if it receives more than 10,000 votes of support. Due to the enthusiastic interest and response from the general public, all institutions received more than 10,000 votes within 12 days of the start of voting and were selected as final recipient institutions.

Samsung Electronics provides 15 institutions selected as 'Smart Schools' with an advanced classroom environment integrated with Galaxy tablets, electronic whiteboards, Samsung School Solutions, and wireless networks, and also offers training programs to teachers so they can use smart devices for education.

For these institutions, employees and developers plan to provide remote software coding education services by utilizing the wireless network IT environment established as a 'Smart School'.