Schools in capital area to turn back to online education amid surging COVID-19 cases
An elementary school student leaves his school in Seoul, Dec. 16. Schools in the greater Seoul area will roll back their full in-person classes and go back to partial online education starting next week, the Ministry of Education announced Thursday. Yonhap
Schools in the greater Seoul area will roll back their full in-person classes and go back to partial e-learning starting next week in line with the country's tightened anti-COVID-19 curbs, the education ministry announced Thursday.
Under its restored e-learning scheme, middle and high schools in the greater capital area and densely populated schools outside the zone will run at two-thirds capacity of its normal level, starting Monday and to be effective till the winter vacation season in late December, the ministry said.
Classes for elementary school students in their third to six years will run at 75 percent capacity, while the first and second years will continue with fully in-person classes, according to the ministry.
Schools will also be advised against big in-person school activities, including graduation ceremonies, and given a three-day grace period to implement the new measures.
The ministry will also recommend universities resort to e-learning for big classes and strictly enforce social distancing in classes held during the winter vacation period.
The measures mark a turnaround after in-person school classes fully resumed across the nation on Nov. 22 in line with the "living with COVID-19" scheme.
Withdrawing the scheme aimed at bringing the country back to normal, the government unveiled plans to reinstitute a four-person ceiling on private gatherings nationwide and a 9 p.m. curfew on cafes and restaurants, to be effective from Saturday until Jan. 2, in a bid to stem the resurging pandemic. (Yonhap)