SOUTH KOREA
- Home / SOUTH KOREA
South Korea– Yun Jeong-hyun
A dedicated technical teacher in South Korea with over thirty years of experience, Yun Jeong-hyun is truly one of a kind. For him, his job doesn’t seem like work when he clocks in 14-hour days and weekend classes just to see his students find the motivation to do better. He runs after-school clubs for practical and skill-based learning so that the students can acquire vocational certificates and make a living for themselves. He has received the Hong Jo Geun-jung medal which is a very notable achievement and was also one of the Top 10 Finalists for the Global Teacher Prize.
DRIVING FORCE
No other career apart from teaching gave him joy and purpose. Yun Jeong-hyun has served in the Suncheon Technical Highschool located in fishing and farming villages for 29 years. He has been the head of the automobile department and nothing short of a life coach and mentor for the students who come from difficult family backgrounds or socially vulnerable sections of the society. He wanted the students to work towards holistic development, irrespective of where they came from. He stressed on vocational knowledge just as much as personality building. He started multiple clubs for technical learning – certificate class, employment class and volunteer work class. These ran after school hours so that students could join in after their part-time jobs.
IMPACT
In his career, Yun Jeong-Hyun has introduced a range of vocational qualifications students can take up across welding, construction, 3D scanning and a lot more. He teaches students on rotation, and was able to raise a huge sum of 623,600,000 dollars in 2010 to fund the after-school activity costs.
After his close involvement, there has been a substantial increase in the number of students signing up for volunteer work every year. Since 2014, more than half the students participated and in the last decade, 4 of his students have also been awarded talent awards by the Korean Government. These awards are only given to 50 students every year, so it is a huge achievement!
More than awards, this teacher lends money to his students to pay for the certification exam! His teacher’s notebook contains 17 years of paying student exam fees, which is then repaid to him after the students find a work opportunity.
CHALLENGE
Freshmen at these specialized high schools enter because their grades are low and haven’t been able to get into a school of their choice, or because they can’t afford private schooling. As a result of this, the students who entered the automobile department were never interested in the first place. Due to their family backgrounds, they came in with a lack of purpose – already feeling defeated in life. Some of them worked after school to pay the school fees and take care of family expenses while some fell victim to substance abuse or needed specialised education because of ADHD.
He is an exceptional teacher who has introduced programs over and above regular school curriculum, but another major struggle was the lack of equipment and how expensive it is. It took years of dedication, coaching, mentorship to help them find a path to a better life – even if it meant paying out of his own salary so they could sit for certification exams.
STEP FORWARD
When Ranjitsinh Disale decided to part with half of the Global Teacher Prize money, he decided to give it to the other 9 other finalists who are working towards a common goal – global education. Every child deserves to be educated to become a social being that adds to the community.
Even with regular funding, his after-school activities continue to require money to function as it is technical learning. The cost of running the school after school hours is huge. There are about 100 – 120 students in the automobile department and he is using this round of funding to fuel the after-school activities with construction equipment.
This will greatly help his students appear for the exams.
Apart from this, he will partner with Ranjitsinh Disale to further work on goals that take into account teaching with the use of technology.
Knowledge is powerful when it is accessible. We often forget the latter & RDF wishes to be a changemaker in the education space. With the use of technology & tools, we want to create a student community that has unlimited seats.
Copyright ©2025 All rights reserved | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy