Education ministry eases distancing rules to expand in-person learning in fall

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- The Ministry of Education announced a set of new relaxed social distancing guidelines in schools Monday to bring more children back into classrooms in the fall.

The ministry said it will allow schools to run in-person classes even under Level 4 distancing measures, the most stringent set of rules, as long as there are attendance caps to maintain social distancing among students in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The cap varies depending on grades: It is set at half of the total student body from third to sixth graders in elementary school, two-thirds in middle school, and also half for first and second graders in high schools.

Kindergartens, first and second grades in elementary schools, and schools for disabled children will be exempt from the rules regardless of the severity of the pandemic, given the heightened need for in-person interactions for their development and education.

The decision, which came amid record-breaking virus infections nationwide in recent weeks, reflected a consensus among teachers and education officials that the pandemic widened inequities in learning and that in-person classes have benefits that outweigh infection risks among children.

The measure also took into consideration that working parents find it increasingly burdensome and exhausting to juggle work and child care during the day, and fully opening schools is a crucial step toward economic recovery.

The wider capital area, which includes Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, as well as Daejeon, a central city about 150 kilometers south of the capital, is currently under the Level 4 virus restrictions. They originally enforced an outright ban on in-person learning at school.

The rest of the country is placed under the second-strongest virus restriction level, which requires the attendance cap to be placed at two-thirds or less of the total student body.

Under the relaxed rules, schools can resume in-person lessons full-time in Level 3 if virus transmissions in schools are considered to be manageable.

The ministry has been seeking to bring all students back into classrooms come September, out of concerns over a widening gap in educational achievements and the effects on children from a yearlong pandemic.

But its plan hit a major hurdle last month, as virus cases surged to record highs in the greater Seoul area, home to around half of the country's population.

For around two weeks between the end of summer vacation -- mostly Aug. 20 -- and Sept. 6, the start of the second semester, schools are still allowed to hold in-person lessons in a limited fashion, regardless of the spread of the virus.

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr
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