Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Gov't in dilemma over resuming on-site classes
Soldiers disinfect a middle school in Daegu as part of efforts to help the city cope with the COVID-19 crisis, in this March 17 photo. /Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
The government appears to be in a dilemma over whether to resume normal classes at schools, according to education officials Tuesday, as the number of new coronavirus infections has been on a downward trend.
Officials want to open schools as quickly as possible and return teachers and students to classrooms. But at the same time, they are equally concerned that if they open the schools too soon, they could become a hotbed for the highly contagious virus as students come into contact with one another.
As the number of newly confirmed daily cases of COVID-19 has stayed around 15 or less for 10 consecutive days, many educators, teachers and students expect to see schools resuming normal classes. Schools have been closed since March 2, when the new school semester was originally scheduled to commence.
The Ministry of Education said Tuesday that it had held a videoconference with local education superintendents to come up with a detailed plan for any reopening. During the conference, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae and the 17 regional superintendents discussed how to resume normal classes while preventing them from becoming hotbeds for the coronavirus.
A decision is expected between May 3 and 5, after the government decides whether to further ease social distancing next week. If the ministry decides to reopen schools, classes are likely to take gradual steps to return to normal by as early as mid-May.
The education ministry's discussions come as Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun directed it during a regular virus response meeting Monday to come up with a road map for the reopening in stages.
“The ministry should prepare a detailed plan for school re-openings, including the exact date, and disclose the procedures to parents and students at the beginning of next month. In particular, it must focus on collecting the opinions of seniors at middle and high schools who have to take examinations to enter higher educational institutes,” Chung said.
Regarding the reopening, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon said if seniors at middle and high schools resume normal classes, schools will have time to check on their disinfection work and school lunch programs.
“Taking gradual steps that bring students back to schools at different dates is among the options under consideration. We think it will also be the best option to relieve the anxiety of parents who are still reluctant to send their children to school,” Cho said.
The cautious judgment follows in the wake of related events in Singapore. Schools opened there March 23 but the government reversed the decision March 25 because of new virus cases discovered at a kindergarten. Singaporean students have been told to stay home until May 5.
The ministry made the unprecedented decision to postpone the start of the school year by five weeks in March to avoid possible mass infections. This left students at elementary, middle and high schools to take classes online.