Party and Government: "School Opening Delay, Need to Monitor Situation... Financial Support to Universities for Incoming Chinese Students"

[Asia Economy Reporter Won Dara] The Democratic Party of Korea and the Ministry of Education have decided to monitor the situation further before making a decision on postponing the start of the school semester in response to the novel coronavirus (Wuhan pneumonia) outbreak. They also agreed to provide financial support to universities in preparation for the arrival of Chinese international students.

Cho Seung-rae, a Democratic Party lawmaker and the secretary of the National Assembly's Education Committee, told reporters after a party-government meeting on the novel coronavirus response held at the National Assembly on the morning of the 10th, "The education authorities cannot decide on the postponement of the semester alone," adding, "We need to observe the global situation."

He continued, "We are establishing communication channels between the Ministry of Education and parents," and explained, "Since there are many multicultural families, the Ministry of Education is preparing related manual guidelines in 13 languages."

He also stated, "We have decided to allocate a special grant of 25 billion won for the emergency response requested by the metropolitan and provincial offices of education, which will be executed," adding, "This will help with the purchase of equipment for frontline disinfection."

Regarding the large influx of Chinese international students entering universities at the start of the semester, he said, "The biggest issue is the Chinese students arriving around February 20," and explained, "Preemptive quarantine measures are necessary, and universities have requested funds for preemptive responses. The Ministry of Education has requested the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to allocate contingency funds."

Regarding the scale, he said, "Once the execution of contingency funds is decided, the amount will be calculated based on which items can be covered."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.