Schools in Seoul area to resume remote learning

Seoul, Dec 19

Schools in the Seoul area will resume remote learning this week as part of a government campaign aimed at stemming the fast spread of Covid-19, officials said on Sunday.

Under the latest rules, schools in the capital area and overly crowded schools in other parts of the country will roll back fully in-person classes and reintroduce a mix of in-person and virtual classes starting from Monday, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Middle and high schools will be able to run at two-thirds capacity, while third- to sixth-grade elementary school classes will be able to run at 75 per cent capacity.

Only first- and second-grade elementary school classes will continue to be held fully in-person.

Local education authorities in Seoul, however, adopted tighter rules, forcing elementary schools in the city to further limit in-person classes for third- to sixth-graders to 50 percent capacity, given that first- and second-graders are attending fully in-person classes.

The government’s new guidelines, which will be in place until the start of each school’s winter vacation, come as coronavirus infections among children in kindergarten through high school averaged 869 daily cases from December 9-15, nearly double the 456.6 cases from November 18-24, or around the time fully in-person classes began November 22.

The country as a whole has recently reported more than 7,000 cases almost daily, setting fresh records for Covid-19 cases, critically ill patients and deaths. IANS