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.
4 in 10 children of low-income families still struggling in pandemic
A teacher prepares online classes in an empty classroom in Seoul, in this April. 9 photo. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Children from low-income families have experienced various problems such as educational gaps and reduced physical activity in the year since the COVID-19 outbreak, a survey showed Wednesday.
According to a survey of 582 children supported by Child Fund Korea, which was conducted for three months from October last year, 72.1 percent of the respondents said they were alone at home or with siblings without parents during the daytime. The respondents ranged from fourth grade elementary school students to high school sophomores.
Among them, 20.1 percent of the children spent less than three hours a day alone at home, while 18.6 percent said they were alone for more than 5 hours a day.
More than 30 percent of respondents said they were having difficulties with online classes when school opening was delayed last year.
When multiple answers were allowed, 39.3 percent said they had difficulty communicating with teachers during the online classes, 39.1 percent said the content of online classes was too difficult, and 33.1 percent said they had only limited access to digital devices and an internet connection for online classes.
Many children expressed dissatisfaction that they did not have their own space at home. When asked, “What do you need the most in your house now?” 53.1 percent of the respondents said they needed more space and 44.6 percent said they needed independent areas like their own rooms.
As to how the students spent their free time following the coronavirus outbreak, “watching media through YouTube” was the most common answer with 62.4 percent, followed by playing games on a computer or mobile phone with 59.4 percent. Only 14.1 percent of the respondents said they exercised.
“This year, the foundation will do its best to provide learning support services to bridge the educational gap, operate online programs, and support the improvement of living conditions and caregiving gaps according to the results of this survey,” said Child Fund Korea CEO Lee Je-hoon.