Working parents struggle as schools delay new semester

. Students read books at a classroom while attending an emergency care service at an elementary school in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

Working parents are struggling to find places to take care of their young children as the education ministry has ordered all kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools across the country to further delay the start of the new school year by two more weeks, as part of governmental measures to protect students from the COVID-19 outbreak.

All kindergartens and elementary, middle and high schools will begin their new school year March 23, three weeks later than initially planned. Child care has become a problem for working parents here due to the postponed start of the school year.

Cho Yoon-jung, 41, an office worker and mother of a nine-year-old son, said she had no choice but to inform her company that she would work from home for two weeks from next week.

“My husband and I took it in turns to take leave this week to take care of my son, but it is not an option for us to do it for three weeks. My boss and colleagues looked unhappy when I talked about working from home, but what else I can do?” Cho said.

She said her fellow workers who have young children like Cho asked for help from their parents, but she cannot do so because her parents live far away, and the parents of Cho's husband are already taking care of his sister's children in another province.

Jeon So-ra, 35, another working mother with a four-year-old daughter who attends daycare, said she took her daughter to her parents' house in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to stay there for three weeks until the reopening of the daycare.

“The biggest difficulty for my family is that we have no idea when this will end,” Jeon said.

She said that she and her husband initially took turns to take leave for one week, however, when the government instructed all schools to again postpone the start of the spring semester, she decided to ask for help from her parents.

“We honestly can't be sure if we can handle this situation if the virus spread does not subside soon,” Jeon said.

If the semester is delayed for over three weeks, affected schools will adjust the length of their summer and winter vacations to ensure there are an adequate number of school days. If necessary, the government also plans to reduce statutory school days for this year by 10 percent ― 18 days for kindergartens and 19 days for elementary, middle and high schools.

The education ministry also said it would ask private educational institutes nationwide to suspend operations for the time being to reduce contact among young students.

Kindergartens and elementary schools are running emergency child care services for working parents facing difficulties, but many parents are worried about having to send their children to the care service when other parents have kept their children at home for fear of possible transmission of the virus.

In order to ease pressure on working parents the education ministry has said it will ensure the emergency child care service will run from 9am to 5pm, and will push to ensure the maximum yearly period of paid child care leave for salaried workers from the current 10 days to 15 days.

It has also pledged to tighten disinfection work at the centers and institutions running the service to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.