Ministry of Education Withdraws School Stockpiled Mask Collection Plan ... "Restoration to Original State by Next Week"

Nationwide Plan to Collect 5.8 Million Reserved Items from Elementary, Middle, and High Schools Canceled

On the 3rd, amid growing concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, students at Bongeun Elementary School in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, are attending school wearing masks. Photo by Mun Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of Education has withdrawn its decision to collect 5.8 million masks stockpiled in elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide and prioritize their supply to the general public.

On the 4th, the Ministry of Education announced that, according to the mask supply plan decided by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the 3rd, other regional city and provincial offices of education, except for Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon where masks have already been collected, will not collect school stockpiled masks.

Earlier, as the demand for masks surged due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the Ministry of Education informed each city and provincial office of education on the 29th of last month that it would collect 5.8 million of the 12.7 million masks held by schools nationwide to alleviate the mask supply shortage. The plan was to secure the collected masks again in kind by the weekend of the second week of March and return them to each school.

Accordingly, 1.6 million masks were first secured from schools in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, and the remaining 4.2 million masks were scheduled to be provided from schools in 12 other regions excluding Daegu and Gyeongbuk, where the COVID-19 situation is severe, including Gangwon, Gyeongnam, Gwangju, Daejeon, Busan, Ulsan, Sejong, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, Jeju, Chungnam, and Chungbuk.

However, there was continuous opposition among schools and parents, arguing that the government forcibly taking masks that schools had painstakingly secured for infection control of students was no different from confiscation.

A Ministry of Education official said, "Since the masks collected from schools must be returned by next week anyway, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters decided not to collect any more masks from other regions except for the areas where masks have already been collected," adding, "Regarding the collected masks in the metropolitan area, we will return them to each school by next week before the schools reopen as promised."

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