South Korea should have started their classes on March 2. However, the effect of COVID-19 was so strong that the heads of the Ministry of Education have postponed it for a week, but the influence of the virus was strong that they added three more weeks. Then, they added two more weeks again. The students should study, so the Ministry of Education started to provide online classes. At last, on May 4, 2020, the opening of school was confirmed by the Ministry of Education at a briefing on the opening of school and was started that it will be on May 20th.

▲ Schedule postponed because of COVID-19

There are lots of concerns about offline classes. It is because, in the case of coronavirus, there are many symptoms, so quarantine inspections such as fever checks and surveys in front of schools are less accurate, which can lead to collective infection. In addition, COVID-19 does not have a clear vaccine or cure, so there is greater concern over the aftermath of the infection in crowded spaces like schools. Plus, it becomes ambiguous when there are no confirmed cases. If a student is infected, the school will let that student study at home through online classes. However, that would change the quality of classes with students in school, which would be so unfair.

▲ Start online classes

On May 20th, third-year high school students started their offline classes first. The reason for this was started at the regular press briefing at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A representative said that it would be nice to start school at a safe time when the COVID-19 epidemic ends, but they need to find guidelines for a new daily routine that can share life and quarantine if the dangerous situation does not change much in the seasons of fall and winter. The fact that more than 600 students will be with the infected students makes many concerns. So, many people are not confident about the starting of the offline class in high school. So, the Minister of Education allowed only the high school seniors to go to school every day, and the students in other grades are required to go to school at least once a week. Also, the current online classes are maintained except on school days.

COVID-19 has raged in South Korea since February. Now, the effects of it are decreasing, but it is still dangerous. If all of the students go to school. there is a possibility that some will be infected. If we go to school, we should stay apart from our friends and was our hands. We should be careful about COVID-19 because we do not know when it will come.

June 27th, 2020

By Woo-yeup Kim