Seoul-Incheon Primary School has been going to school every day since 19

Starting on the 19th, the first graders of the primary school in Seoul and Incheon also attend school every day. As the number of days to go to school is limited due to the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), it is noted that children who have started school for the first time have difficulties adjusting. In the non-metropolitan area, not only the primary school first grader is expected, but also schools where all grades attend daily.

The Seoul Metropolitan Bureau of Education announced on the 12th that “we will promote daily school attendance at the beginning of the year after a week-long preparation period.” The day before, the Ministry of Education announced that from the 19th, as social distancing was lowered to the first stage, the density of school attendance would be increased from one third (two thirds for high school) to two thirds. Only the metropolitan area had to strictly adhere to this principle, while the non-metropolitan area gave autonomy to the school. As a result, the Seoul Metropolitan Bureau of Education decided to go to school every day while maintaining the density standard.

The Seoul Metropolitan Bureau of Education gave examples of academic plans through official letters sent to each elementary school. △ First graders can go to school every day, second through sixth graders can go to school 2-4 days a week, or △ Elementary first and second graders can go to elementary school. school every day, and third through sixth graders can go to school 2-3 days a week. Each school can choose a different method to suit the situation.

Initially, the Seoul Metropolitan Bureau of Education promoted a plan to attend school every day, but this time it only recommended “expanding school attendance” to each school. Middle school is a situation where third graders who are about to enter high school must attend school every day. If the first and third graders go to school every day, and to maintain the two-thirds density, the second grader will not be able to attend school at all. Therefore, for high school 1st grade students, it was announced that it is strongly recommended to expand the school after the end of this month until the beginning of November, when the final exam for the third year ends. On this day, the Incheon Metropolitan Education Office also decided to go to school every day from the 19th, and High 1 to school at least three times a week. The Gyeonggi Province Office of Education sent an official letter to the school asking them to actively consider expanding their attendance to first and second grade schools. The Office of Education explained that there are more than 1,300 elementary schools and some schools are difficult if they are asked to go to school every day. Some schools in the metropolitan area do not meet the two-thirds density standard and are able to attend school. This is because the Ministry of Education relaxed the standard for small-scale schools that allowed full attendance the day before from 60 or less to 300 or less. There are 132 schools in Seoul (76 elementary schools, 45 middle schools, and 11 high schools).

There are many schools in the non-metropolitan area where all grades choose to attend school every day. Differences in grades and number of attendances have also been noted between metropolitan and non-capital areas in terms of the educational record gap. Even within the same region, there are complaints from students and parents that the number of attendances varies depending on the decisions of the school.

Yena Choi go to the reporter’s page [email protected]>Reporter Lee So-jung