New School Inaugurated in Un Pyung

The schools of Seoul were hard hit by the war. Most were destroyed, many were almost beyond repair, and those left reasonably intact were used as quarters by the fighting forces. The United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency's (UNKRA) program of classroom construction and repair, budgeted at $1.8 million in 1953, was continued into 1954 with an allocation of $1 million. On 10 December 1954, the first large school in the Seoul area which was completed with UNKRA funds was officially opened by Kim Tai Sun, Mayor of the Special City of Seoul. An 11-room structure, the new school seats 550 students and was constructed at a total cost of $117,600.
Seen here while the inaugural ceremony was in progress in the courtyard facing the school, a group of kids peek in at the new classrooms from the rear of the building.