"Care Class Also Unstable" ... Emergency Care Use by Kindergarten and Elementary Students Decreases Again

Only 40% of Applicants in Seoul Participate... About 300 Fewer on Second Day
0.87% of Elementary Students and 5% of Kindergarteners Nationwide Participate

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Amid the nationwide postponement of kindergarten and school openings due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the number of students who initially applied for 'emergency care' but did not use it has increased. It is interpreted that parents are reluctant to use the care classrooms due to concerns that COVID-19 could be transmitted to staff or other students.

According to the Ministry of Education and metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide on the 4th, the number of kindergarten and elementary school students in Seoul who used emergency care the day before was 5,707 and 5,421 respectively, down by 180 and 129 from the 2nd.

At the end of last month, the number of Seoul kindergarten students who initially applied for emergency care was 15,138, and elementary students were 12,759, accounting for 20.1% and 3.1% of the total students, respectively.

However, on the first day of emergency care operation on the 2nd in Seoul, only 5,836 kindergarten students and 5,601 elementary students attended the care classrooms. This means that only 38.6% and 43.9% of the applicants, less than half, participated. Compared to the total number of students, 7.73% of kindergarten students and 1.35% of elementary students received emergency care.

The number of students participating in emergency care further decreased on the 3rd, with only 7.56% of all kindergarten students and 1.30% of elementary students actually using the service.

Nationwide, on the 2nd, 23,703 elementary students participated in emergency care. In the initial demand survey, 1.8% (48,656) of the 2,721,484 elementary students nationwide applied for emergency care, but only 48.7% of them actually used the care classrooms. This is only 0.87% of the total elementary students.

In Daegu, where a large number of COVID-19 cases occurred, only 568 elementary students, 0.5% of the local elementary students, applied for emergency care, and only 146 students actually attended the care classrooms.

Among 616,293 kindergarten students nationwide, 71,353 (11.6%) applied for emergency care, and only 43.2% of them, 30,840 students, participated, accounting for 5.0% of the total kindergarten students.

An education office official explained, "Among the parents who applied for emergency care, some were able to work from home, and some did not send their children due to fear of COVID-19 infection, so the actual usage rate has significantly decreased."

Meanwhile, as the opening of kindergartens and schools nationwide has been postponed again until the 23rd of this month, kindergartens and elementary schools are conducting a second emergency care demand survey. The second demand survey will be conducted until the 5th, and emergency care will be provided until 5 p.m., as during the semester.

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