The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Crafts & Design Foundation (KCDF) announced Thursday the 22 middle and high schools that will adopt hanbok-inspired school uniforms from as early as October.

The hanbok-inspired school uniforms project began in February last year when the Culture Ministry and the Ministry of Education signed a memorandum of understanding to develop hanbok-inspired school uniforms.

Of the 50 schools across the nation that applied for the project, 22 schools, where a total of 4,129 students attend, were selected. Initially, the ministry announced that it would select 20 schools for the project, but two more schools were selected.

For 12 schools that were receiving funds for school uniforms from their respective Office of Education, the ministry will assign a hanbok designer and funds to make prototypes. For 10 schools that were not receiving the funds, the ministry will additionally fund each student 300,000 won ($251) for three years.

“Students of selected schools dressed in comfortable hanbok-inspired school uniforms for the winter can be seen in October at the earliest,” said an official from the Culture Ministry.

“We will develop more hanbok-inspired school uniform designs so that students can have more options. We will take applications for next year’s project earlier in the year than this year.”

In June, the KCDF labeled four companies as “dedicated to hanbok-inspired school uniform production” after reviewing their experience making uniforms and production equipment quality, among other criteria. Each company will be assigned two or three schools that were not receiving uniform assistance and create uniforms with fabric that is both functional and easy to maintain.

The schools that were not selected for the project can independently adopt hanbok-inspired school uniforms by using design specifications published on the KCDF website or apply for the project next year.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)