Plans to bring pre-pandemic normalcy to schools across the country in May are being met with both excitement and worry. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education announced the “back to normal” guidelines that will see schools in Korea resume normal operations beginning May 1. Under the new guidelines, kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools will reintroduce both academic and extracurricular activities, halting online classes, dropping self-testing routines and arrangin

Social Affairs April 21, 2022

From May 1, schools in Korea will resume normal operations under new guidelines. Schools will adapt “normalcy attendance” measures, meaning face-to-face classes will be held and online classes will be reserved for special circumstances. Extracurricular activities, such as field trips and group events, will be allowed. Self-testing routines will be dropped, too. The mask mandate, however, will be maintained at least until the end of the semester. The Ministry of Education announ

Social Affairs April 20, 2022

The number of COVID-19 cases among students and kindergarteners showed a 40 percent week-on-week drop, Seoul’s education authority said Tuesday, as schools prepare to return to normal with the attendance rate for schools in Seoul nearing 100 percent. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Tuesday, 16,814 kindergarteners, elementary, middle and high school students contracted COVID-19 in April 11-17, marking a 40.8 percent drop from 28,366 from the week before. The

Social Affairs April 19, 2022

The Democratic Party of Korea ratcheted up its attack on President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s Cabinet nominations, raising allegations against a second nominee. Kim In-chul, the nominee for deputy prime minister and education minister, has been accused of improperly holding an additional position while he was president of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. According to Rep. Park Chan-dae from the Democratic Party, Kim worked as a nonexecutive director of Lotte Chemical, then Lotte

Politics April 18, 2022

After more than two years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit all parts of the world, Korea is set to step into a new era, lifting major social distancing rules except for the mask mandate. Though the omicron wave is yet to be fully resolved here, the government has decided to lift pandemic-related rules, concluding that the virus peak has passed. On Friday, the disease control authorities presented a new virus response road map, lifting the preexisting social distancing rules such as the limit

Social Affairs April 17, 2022

The Jeollanamdo Provincial Government, which represents South Jeolla Province, aims to support young people of Korean ethnicity residing overseas through the K-Diaspora Youth Project. The regional office signed the memorandum of understanding on Monday with the Godowon Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to youth mentoring, the Blue Tree Foundation, an NGO against school violence, Rep. Yang Hyang-ja of Democratic Party and The Korea Herald, agreeing to work closely to educate youn

Social Affairs April 13, 2022

More than 1 in 4 elementary students have experienced greater feelings of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Education Ministry said Wednesday. 　 Korea Research conducted a study on mental health of students in Korea, which ran from Feb. 11 to 18 and involved 341,412 elementary, middle and high school students, under the request of the ministry. While 27 percent of elementary students responded they have become more depressed than compared to before the pandemic, 26.3 percent said

Social Affairs April 13, 2022

School quarantines will be relaxed starting from Monday next week, with students advised to test themselves once a week using self-testing kits, the Ministry of Education announced Tuesday. The Education Ministry has decided to reduce the frequency of recommended self-testing to once a week from twice a week for kindergarteners, elementary and middle school students. Since the semester began in March, students were advised to test themselves twice a week using rapid antigen testing kits. Ho

Social Affairs April 12, 2022

The Ministry of Education will go forward with restricting students confirmed with COVID-19 from taking the upcoming midterm exams, sticking to its original plans despite protests from students and parents. Students who had been confirmed with COVID-19 amid the pandemic were restricted from taking exams at school and given scores based on the average of their past exam records. For the upcoming midterm exams slated for the end of this month, it is likely that a significant number of students

Social Affairs April 11, 2022

Taking a step back from its initial decision to ban COVID-19-confirmed students from taking midterms, the Ministry of Education is now looking into allowing them to sit for the exams. The Education Ministry said it is currently reviewing the possibilities of having students with active coronavirus cases take the tests later this month. “We have not decided to allow students who have been ordered into isolation from the disease control authorities to take the midterm exams,“ the m

Social Affairs April 8, 2022

A ship with six Koreans aboard has been reported missing off the waters of Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday. “Taiwanese authorities have informed the Korean government that they received distress signals from Kyoto 1 near the waters of Taiwan at 9:50 a.m. on Thursday,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding the six crew members who were on the Kyoto 1 are all of Korean nationality. The boat was on its way to Indonesia’s Port of Batam from Busan, while tow

Social Affairs April 8, 2022

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 infections stayed in the 220,000s for the 24 hours of Wednesday, the government reported Thursday. Authorities are looking at the reinfection rate, which stands at 0.0018 percent amid the omicron wave, relatively lower than that of other countries. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country’s daily COVID-19 cases came to 224,820, down 61,474 from the previous day’s 286,294. It is a significant drop from the 320,699

Social Affairs April 7, 2022

The Education Ministry’s decision to maintain a ban on students with COVID-19 from taking midterm exams has drawn backlash, with students and parents voicing concerns that missing out on the exams could put them at a disadvantage. “It is rather fortunate that our whole family already had COVID-19,” a high school student who attends a school in northern Seoul said. “It would be frustrating to miss the midterms as I had messed up on the previous one,” said the hig

Social Affairs April 6, 2022

The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday issued specific guidelines for the restriction on the use of plastic products, specifying that all types of food service businesses, including convenience stores and internet cafes, come under the ban. The government has banned restaurants, cafes, food stalls and bars from giving out single-use products for customers dining in. Single-use products are only available for takeout or delivery services. The latest guideline says that all types of food serv

Social Affairs April 5, 2022