| A quarantine official disinfects a classroom at Yeongdongil High School in Songpa-gu, Seoul, Monday. The country will reopen schools in stages, starting with high school seniors, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
By Bahk Eun-ji
The Ministry of Education (MOE) ordered all kindergartens, and elementary, middle and high schools Monday to delay reopening by a week as an infection cluster stemming from a superspreader visitor to a number of nightclubs in the Itaewon area has been spreading rapidly across the country.
Under the plan, high school seniors will return to school on May 20, while other grades will return to school gradually over the following weeks.
"After thorough consultation with health authorities, the education ministry decided to postpone school reopening for high school seniors to ensure their safety from possible spreading in classrooms" said Vice Education Minister Park Baeg-beom during a press briefing
The ministry's decision came just two days before high school seniors, who are currently taking online classes, were supposed to return to classrooms this Wednesday.
Metropolitan and provincial school superintendents suggested, Monday, postponing the reopening of schools further.
Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE), expressed the importance of the education ministry and quarantine authorities reviewing the school reopening schedule.
"The Ministry of Education should postpone the reopening date by a week and it has to be discussed again on May 20, two weeks after the government's intensive social distancing campaign was ended," Cho said.
On the same day, Lee Jae-jung, head of the education office of Gyeonggi Province, said he also urged the education authorities to reschedule the school reopenings considering the looming likelihood of a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
"Given the situation in which the virus is apparently spreading again, it is obviously inevitable to postpone the reopening schedule for high school seniors this Wednesday. How long it will be postponed will be decided by the education ministry and the health authorities later," Lee said during a press conference at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education in Suwon.
On May 4, the education ministry announced plans to reopen schools this week, as the spread of the highly contagious virus had been showing signs of abating. More than two months after schools were physically closed, high school seniors are currently scheduled return to school on May 13 under the plan, while younger students including kindergarteners are to return in stages between May 20 and June 1.
The move signaled that the country was returning to normal life amid a significant slowdown in daily new infections and no local infections.
However, many parents and students expressed their concerns over the schedule as nearly 90 new cases have been confirmed in relation to infections at bars and clubs in Itaewon. More than 178,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the government delay the school opening for all grades as of 3 p.m.
Another senior SMOE official said the education office is not the decision maker for the reopening schedule, but they clarified their position in order to show how seriously they are taking this situation.
"When more than 170,000 parents and students are demanding the rescheduling in fear of possible classroom outbreaks, it is not the right time for education authorities to stick to the academic calendar," the official said.