SOUTH KOREA: Pupils are being urged to use worn-down pencils and to scrimp on other classroom resources to help revive their country’s troubled economy.
A newspaper advert commissioned by the education office in the capital, Seoul, exhorts pupils to extend the life of pencils by attaching sticks to them, a practice commonplace during the Korean War.
Since then the country’s economy has risen to 11th in the world league. An education official said the advertisement was not just an attempt to reduce the cost of schooling during a difficult recession, but a way of encouraging affluent young people to adopt the virtues of prudence and other social values.
