Korean Government Announces Reopening Of School This Week

The government is expected to announce dates soon for students to return to school in compliance with the country’s relaxed social distance guidelines as the coronavirus pandemic shows signs of decline here.

“South Korea will introduce the everyday life quarantine scheme beginning on Wednesday,” said Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun at a briefing on the government response to COVID-19 on Sunday.

Earlier the government said it would move on to the quarantine scheme of daily life if the number of new diseases remained below 50. That’s been seen in South Korea for the last 25 days.

“We will move our children sequentially to take classes at school. Tomorrow, the education minister will announce the comprehensive timetable and process,” Chung said.

The change to quarantine in everyday life raises the expectation that this month, students will return to school.

While the exact date is expected to be announced in the press conference, others argue that school will resume around May 18-20, giving health and education officials ample time to gage the effect of the so-called golden holiday.

South Koreans are on an extended holiday, with main activities on the calendar such as Buddha’s Birthday, Labor Day and Children’s Day occurring between April 30 and May 5. At this time many people are forced to fly or visit families, making it impossible to separate themselves from society.

However, there is the risk that seniors from high school may return to school a week earlier due to schedules related to the national college entrance exam taking place every year in November. The test was postponed to December this year.

For the past two months, South Korean kindergartens and primary, middle and high schools – normally beginning the new school year in March – have been closed.

The government delayed the new school term to April by five weeks, when grade school students attended online classes for the first time in the country’s educational history.

Online classes were slowly opened, with seniors from high school and middle school taking classes starting on April 9, followed on April 16 by grades 1-2 in middle and high schools and 4-6 elementary schools. Online lower grade classes began at elementary schools on April 20.

Children’s nurseries and day care centers remain closed, offering emergency child care only for qualifying households