The closed main gate of an elementary school in Seoul as the new school year was postponed due to the new coronavirus. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is considering postponing the repeatedly delayed opening of schools by one or two more weeks until early next month as a precaution against the new coronavirus, government sources said Sunday.
Kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools across the country are currently scheduled to reopen March 23, as their opening, originally scheduled for March 2, was postponed twice, first until March 9 and then until next week.
But parents and an association of teachers have called for another postponement, saying that schools are vulnerable to infections as students study and eat together in classrooms.
Related government ministries are discussing whether to postpone the new school year and that the decision will come out soon. Sources said that chances are growing of postponing the opening by one or two weeks.
The number of daily new cornavirus cases has slowed to a three-week low following massive testing on followers of the Shincheonji religious sect in the hard-hit southeastern city of Daegu. The total caseloads reached 8,162 Sunday.
But concerns about small-scale cluster infections are growing, as witnessed in cases linked to a call center in Seoul’s southwestern district of Guro and the government complex building in the administrative city of Sejong.
The Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations claimed it would be inevitable for the government to put off the start of the spring semester if community infections continue.
If the government decides on another postponement, it will be the first time that South Korea’s new school year begins in April.
Even when the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome broke out in 2015, the school term was adjusted in only certain regions.
(Yonhap)
