A teacher at Jeju Jungang Girls High School in Jeju Island, leads a mock online class on April 1, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Seoul education authorities plan to launch a mentoring program to prevent online classes from widening the achievement gap among students.
Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE), unveiled Wednesday the second semester school opening plan as well as measures to address the achievement gap in online classes.
As part of its new initiative, the SMOE plans to kick-start the operation of one-on-one mentoring programs for students.
For elementary schools, this program will provide mentors to help lower grade students and those who need support to develop basic academic skills.
The program will be operated in such a way that one mentor takes care of fewer than ten students.
The mentors will be responsible for checking the students’ attendance for online lectures, supporting their use of smart devices and monitoring their completion of online classes.
For middle schools, students of the Colleges of Education located in Seoul will offer one-on-one support to students of educationally vulnerable families, checking their attendance and helping them complete their work.
Retired teachers are also invited to join the program.
They will give support to first-grade elementary students who are not yet accustomed to using the Korean alphabet, or Hangul, and second-grade elementary students struggling with reading, writing and numeracy.
In addition, amid growing concerns that the number of students suffering from depression due to COVID-19 could increase, the SMOE plans to augment the use of online and offline consultation services through professional organizations.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
